Flan de Naranja

I love chocolate as much as the next girl, but I promise you that I will choose desserts from the custard/pudding family first every time. The texture! I love the smooth creaminess that holds its shape but yields the second it's placed on your tongue...

The only problem is desserts of this nature are usually comprised almost entirely of cream, egg yolks and sugar. Aka, not health food as we usually define it.

Which is why, dear readers, I was positively THRILLED to find this recipe for "Orange Flan." Which is as close to health food that custard will ever venture. Which is why I bought a large bag of oranges the very next day.

In general flan, unlike creme brulee or other egg custards, is not worth eating without the caramel topping, and this orange flan is no exception. Make the caramel. It will hit your tongue first, giving way to a mysterious orange egginess. If you think this is a puzzling set of flavors, you are correct- but you'll be completely satisfied mulling them over as you take the next bite...and the next...

The custard is incredibly easy to prepare, so save your worry for the caramel, which can be tricky.

Flan de Naranja (Orange Flan), adapted from Apple Pie, Patis and Pate

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, and get out 4 ramekins and a baking dish that will hold all of them.

Have 4 6-oz ramekins at the ready. Combine 1/2 cup sugar with 2 tablespoons of water in a sauce pot. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring only until the sugar is dissolved. Once the syrup boils, watch it carefully and swirl the pan occasionally to make sure the mixture is heating evenly. Cook until the caramel is deep amber- but be careful! It cooks some after you take it off the heat, so you may want to take it almost there and have some cool water in the sink to stick the bottom of the pot in to make sure you don't burn it. Burnt caramel is inedible.

Working quickly before the caramel hardens, pour a little into each ramekin, coating the bottom. I swirled mine to get the caramel on the sides too, but it's not necessary, and hot caramel is VERY HOT. And STICKY. And DANGEROUS. (or, because we're dealing with a Spanish dessert here- PELIGROSO!)

Make the custard:

6 large eggs

5 T sugar

1 1/3 cups fresh squeezed orange juice (about 4-5 large oranges)

1 t orange zest (from one orange)

In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Try not to incorporate too much air into the eggs. Mix in the sugar, and then slowly mix in the orange juice while beating the eggs. Strain to remove pulp or seeds. Add the zest and stir.

Get out the baking dish and line with a tea towel. Place ramekins in the dish and distribute the custard mixture evenly among them. Pour hot water in the pan so it comes half way up the sides of the ramekins. This will help the flans bake evenly.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes until the centers are set. Once done, remove the ramekins from the water bath and let cool at room temperature. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Run a knife around the edges of the flans and invert onto plates to serve.

I figured it out- each flan only has about 1.5 eggs and less than 2 tablespoons of sugar. Not too shabby.

OAT FUDGE BARS!!

Can you believe it's December already? My life is slipping away. I'm pretty much convinced that I am middle aged right now, based on life-experience-speed.

See, when you're a kid, life moves so unbearably slowly. There are years between birthdays. You've been in 3rd grade forever. You can't even remember the last time you had ice cream.

Somewhere around high school, time picks up, and before you know it, you're applying to colleges. You're on the brink of adult life. There's no catching up now.

I am now 24; I've been out of college for almost a year, but it seems like only a few months. And in this year, I've lived in 4 of the 5 boroughs of New York City, planned a wedding, gone through with it, moved to Georgia....and here I am now, married FOUR MONTHS and trying to figure out what to do with my life before it gets up and leaves me!

Hence, I am middle aged. I'm pretty sure that the entire rest of my life will take about as long to live as the first 24 years. TWENTY-FOUR!!!!!

Oh wait, you say you're here for baked goods?

Well, here you go....OAT FUDGE BARS!!!

A local coffee shop in Blacksburg, VA, sold super amazing oat fudge bars that helped me through each and every final...and I made it my collegiate mission to crack the recipe. I was very scientific about it, taking notes on every batch I made, and I must say that this one is very, very close.

You'll find similar recipes for oat and chocolate bars, but the chocolate part always lacks the key ingredient: cocoa powder. It's essential to achieving the fudginess that makes these things so darn phenomenal.

I also use regular oatmeal, not the quick-cooking kind. I like the texture better. Also, I like to pretend these things are healthy. I haven't heard otherwise, and I'm not going to bother asking.

Ingredients:

Oat part:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

2 t vanilla

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

2.5 cup AP flour

3 cup oats

Fudge part:

2 T butter

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

12 oz sweetened condensed milk (so I basically just pour out a 15 oz can and don't worry about scraping the sides.)

2/3 c cocoa powder

Preheat to 350.

You know the drill: Mix the dry ingredients (minus oats), set aside. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth. Mix in the dry ingredients, then stir in the oats.

Make the fudge:

Melt the chocolate with the SC milk and butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring often. When the chocolate mixture is smooth, add the cocoa powder and stir until smooth. (add it a little at a time, and if it looks like it's getting too dark and thick for you, then you can stop whenever. Really, any cocoa powder is better than no cocoa powder.)

Press 2/3 of the oat mixture into the bottom of a greased pan. You can use different dimensions depending on how thick you want your bars to be. I used a 9x9 pan, but you could easily use a 9x13.

Scoop the fudge mixture on top of the oats and smooth.

Drop the rest of the oat mixture on top, pieces at a time, until it looks like this:

Then bake at 350 for about 30 min, until golden brown on top. Don't over bake- the fudge will set as it cools.

Good for breakfast, lunch, dinner and anytime in between.