Flan!

Last night I was craving dessert. My husband and I decided to try making flan for the first time, YUM!

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 45 minutes
Chill: 60 minutes
Yield: 6-12 Servings

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
6 large eggs
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
26 oz evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. You will need 6 ramekins or other specialty flan cook ware, and a large baking pan to put them in.

Pour 1 cup sugar into warm pan over medium heat. Constantly stir the sugar until it browns and becomes caramel. Quickly pour approximately 2-3 tbs of caramel into each ramekin, tilting it to swirl the caramel around the sides. Reheat caramel if it starts to harden.

In a mixer or with a whisk, blend the eggs together. Mix in the milks and then slowly mix in the 1/2 cup sugar, then the vanilla. Blend smooth after each ingredient is added.

Pour custard into caramel lined ramekins. Place ramekins in a large glass or ceramic baking dish and fill with about 1-2 inches of hot water. Bake for 45 minutes in the water bath and check with a knife just to the side of the center. If knife comes out clean, it's ready.

Remove and let cool. Let each ramekin chill in refrigerator for 1 hour. Invert each ramekin onto a small plate, the caramel sauce will flow over the custard.

Tips and tricks:
I don't have ramekins, so I used small round flat bottomed stoneware bowls. I used 4 bowls, so with the larger size the baking time increased by about 15 minutes. This is very rich, so a small serving is plenty. The flan that chilled overnight turned out better than the flan that only chilled for an hour.