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.

Flan

I love flan. It's true.

In college my roommates would open the fridge to find that almost every single mug we owned was half full of this delightful custard. The best part was...they didn't really care for it, so it was all mine!

I could go days just eating this stuff. In fact, I made it yesterday and it's been featured as the main part of my every meal since. Healthy? No. Delicious? Absolutely.

I used "The Perfect Flan" recipe on Epicurious from Bon Appetit.

I don't think I'd call it the perfect flan; I've had better. It was very good though.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup whipping cream

1 cup whole milk (I substituted evaporated milk, following the advice of some of the commenters.)

pinch of salt

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (whoops. I just realized I used a whole one. It obviously didn't hurt it though.)

1/3 cup water

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

7 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Assemble 6 or 7 ramekins or custard cups. Combine cream, milk and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Set aside to steep for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the cup of sugar with 1/3 water in another medium saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves, then cook over high heat without stirring (you can swirl it if you want to though) until the caramel is deep amber (I would remove it before it gets to this point because it will continue to darken a bit once off the heat.)

Working quickly, divide the caramel among the ramekins, tilting them to coat the sides. Careful, it's reeeaaallly hot. Set the ramekins into a 13x9 in baking pan.

Whisk the eggs, yolks and remaining sugar until just blended. Gradually whisk in cream mixture, trying to create as little foam as possible. Pour this mixture through a fine sieve into the prepared ramekins. Pour enough hot water into the baking pan that it comes half way up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake until loosely set, about 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours, preferably over night.

To serve, run a knife around the edges of the flan and shake out onto a plate, letting the caramel run down over the flan.

I guess the hardest part about making flan is the caramel. It's not really hard though, just finicky. And flan without the caramel is just not worth the calories.

Pumpkin Flan

This recipe was from a Rachel Ray mag. It pretty much tastes like pumpkin pie. The only thing flan-like was the caramel on the bottom; it didn't have the flanny texture I love...

So if for some reason you're hank'rin for a crust-less pumpkin pie, this is your recipe.

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipes/mucho-gusto-latin-recipes/Pumpkin-Flan