B and I had a family cookout to attend yesterday, so I thought I’d make a trial flan before relying on it to impress his relatives. Once again, I turned to my friends at America’s Test Kitchen for a recipe.
Where do I start?
Okay, how about I start with the fact that I had no intention of writing about the flan. I figured I already wrote about the crème brulee, so I shouldn’t bore with you another custard story. But this was too good to pass up.
The first step is to make the caramel. The recipe said it should be a light amber when it hits 300 degrees, in 3-5 minutes. I long ago learned to rely on temperature over time, so even though it was approaching the 5 minute mark, the temperature was only around 250. It couldn’t possibly be ready.
About a half a second later, the caramel was burnt.
So I wash the pot, and start over again. This took a little longer than I would have liked because burnt, stuck on caramel takes some time to dissolve and release. But this was okay, because it gave those eggs some more time to come up to room temperature.
So, back to the caramel for round two. This time, I tried to rely on color versus time or temperature. Based on how it looked and how it tasted (not that my taste buds should be considered a reliable source after I killed most of them by tasting boiling hot caramel), it was not quite ready. But I was too afraid to leave it on the heat for a second longer. Caramel will turn on you without warning, and I just didn’t want to face round three.
So, the “caramel” is poured in the cake pan, hardening in anticipation of the custard. (Wow, that sounds a little dirty. Shame on me.) The recipe called for a 9” cake pan, but I only had 8” cake pans. And guess what? An 8” cake pan would have to do.
So the custard base, consisting of low fat milk, sweetened condensed milk, eggs and lemon zest was ready and waiting. I poured it into the cake pan, half expecting it to overflow since I was an inch shy. But miraculously, the pan was perfectly accommodating and didn’t fill up to the top.
The cake pan had previously been settled in a roasting pan, so I placed the roasting pan in the oven and then added the hot water bath. This reminded me that I really need to get a kettle, especially if I’m going to continue to be custard obsessed and accident prone. Eventually, pouring boiling water from a sauce pan into a roasting pan is going to get me.
Okay, so everything’s ready to go. Close the oven door, set the timer for 35 minutes and get ready for my flan. As I wait, I imagine how impressed everyone will be by my dessert. “Oooh, flan!”
Bing! The flan’s ready. But it’s not. It’s completely liquid. Seriously? How is this possible?
Oh, I see. I somehow managed to turn off the oven. So my flan just spent 35 minutes in a warm water bath in a lukewarm oven. Yeah, that’s gotta be good for milk and eggs. Oops.
So, oven back on. Timer set for 40 minutes (the recipe said 30-40 minutes, but considering the time didn’t start at the right temperature, I gave it an extra 5 minutes for round two.)
I’m just hoping that whatever bacteria grew during the oddly inappropriate temperature stage of round one doesn’t kill us.
After the flan finishes baking, it needs to rest at room temperature for two hours, then in the refrigerator for two hours.
B and I opted to skip dessert at dinner that night to go home and sample the flan. The verdict? Not too bad. The caramel definitely tasted more like a sugar syrup than caramel, and the custard was fine – it did have a nice lemony flavor from the zest, maybe a little too lemony, but it was good. However, we determined this wouldn’t be a crowd pleaser so I didn’t make a second one for the cookout. They would have to be impressed with my flank steak marinades and grilled radicchio instead.
Here’s a picture of the flan, minus the piece that B and I ate. It looks like Pac Man.
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