Flan is basically Hispanic creme brulee: a custard with a layer of sugar on top, where the sugar is caramelized but left fairly liquid instead of charring it. Like creme brulee, you can flavor it in all sorts of interesting ways, though using orange or lime zest is very common (some recipes even add orange juice to plus-up the flavor). You can either make individual servings of flans in ramekins or other small ceramic pots, or a larger “loaf” that you can then slice up to serve.
The fun part of flan is that you caramelize the sugar first and pour it into the bottom of the dishes, then bake the custard on top of it, and finally invert the dish so the sugar ends up on top. Needless to say, this is a fairly stiff custard so that it holds its shape when the dish is removed. To that end, this is definitely a “make ahead” dessert: a couple of hours of refrigeration time before serving helps.
Recipe here.
Enjoy!
Kevin
