Leche Flan or Caramel Custard - Quick and Easy Recipe

 Leche Flan!!! Who does not love this sweet caramel custard we have all come to love through childhood.

Hello Everyone!

I know that I promised the kimchi recipe next but I haven't really had the time to make a batch for me to take pictures from. So as a compromise, let me present you with this quick and easy recipe I have adapted for the ever sweet and delicious Leche flan! For those unfamiliar with the term, this is caramel custard, a cousin of creme brulee.

Well anyway, it had been raining a lot recently and I have been scouring youtube again for old anime videos just to unwind my tightly wound head. While delving deeply into Japanimation, I happen to come across a cooking channel that I've visited once before for her okonomiyaki recipe. I was poking around her channel when I found her custard recipe which happily enough is a close relative of the Leche Flan we Filipinos simply adore. (You can find her video here) This reminded me about this eggy, creamy dessert that my brother had been egging me to make for quite a while now.

And again, with the definitions (you will really have to get used to me explaining almost everything ^_^)

According to Wikipedia:

 Crème caramel (French: [kʁɛm kaʁaˈmɛl]), flan [flɑ̃], or caramel custard is a custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to crème brûlée, which is custard with a hard caramel top. The dish is eaten throughout the world.

In the Philippines, flan is known as leche flan (the local term for the originally Spanish flan de leche, literally "milk flan"), which is a heavier version of the Spanish flan made with condensed milk and more egg yolks. Leche flan is usually steamed over an open flame or stove top, although rarely it can also be seen baked. Leche flan is a staple in celebratory feasts.

A heavier version of leche flan, tocino del cielo, is similar, but has significantly more egg yolks and sugar.

To provide a visual:

A freshly chilled Leche Flan

 That was the actual finished product.

Now this recipe can be done with just 5 ingredients easily found in your pantry. There are a couple of optional ingredients. Adding or not adding the optional ingredients makes very little difference to the finished product. The two optional things are just for aroma more of. :)

So without further ado:

Quick and Easy Leche Flan

Ingredients:

4 tbsp Sugar

2 tbsp water

1/4 cup condensed milk

1 cup fresh/evaporated milk

2 eggs

1 dash vanilla extract*

1 tsp lemon or calamansi juice*

*optional

Method:

Caramel Sauce

 1. Put the 4 tbsp of sugar and 2 tbsp of water in a saucepan. I used muscovado sugar but any type of sugar will do.

2. Heat the sugar solution over medium heat. Bring to a boil.

3. When the sugar reaches the stretchy taffy-like consistency (you can test this by dipping the spoon you are using in cold water)turn it off, add 1 tbsp of water and pour onto containers.

4. Let it sit and make the custard.

Custard/Flan

1. Crack the eggs in a bowl.

2. Beat them lightly. If you have a wire whisk, try to whisk without lifting the tip of the whisk from the bottom of the bowl, since I am still lacking kitchen tools, I made use of a fork. Just try not to make so much foam on top like I did... *sigh*

3. Set the eggs aside, (hopefully the foam eases down a little) and prepare the milk solution. Mix 1 cup of milk, you can use either fresh milk, full cream milk, evaporated milk, sterilized milk. Here I used fresh milk, but I have a feeling that evaporated or full cream would have made it even creamier. And 1/4 cup of condensed milk, or 4 tbsp of sugar)

(1 cup of milk, fresh or evaporated, 1/4 cup of condensed milk, or 4 tbsp of sugar)

4. Pour the milk solution into a saucepan and bring to a "near boil" the emphasis on near boil means... DO NOT BRING TO A BOIL. Just heat the milk enough to mix the solution completely. This is especially important if you are using sugar instead. Just remember, near boil only.

5. Once the milk and sugar/milk and condensed milk are fully mixed, remove from heat, swirl a little to cool it off and pour in with the eggs.

6. Mix the milk and eggs solution thoroughly. As much as possible, try to mix it well so that you don't lose much of the solution once you strain it through a wire sieve.

7. Strain the solution into an easy to pour container.

8. Pour into the cups/molds you lined with the caramel sauce from earlier.

9. Put a kitchen towel on a pan/steamer and position the molds on the surface. Cover the molds with aluminum foil to help with the cooking process. In my case though, I used the lids of the cups. The kitchen towel is to dissipate the heat from the pan. Too much heat can cause the custard to bubble and thus ruining the silky texture of the dessert. And in my case, it would melt the cups ^_^

10. Cover the pan. Steam for 10-12 minutes with near boil water. Again, NEAR BOIL. Try to set the stove to the very minimum you can get. One technique I learned from my aunt was to crank the switch on the stove towards the off position, tapping it to get it to go lower.

11. After 20 minutes, the custard should be ready. Remove from heat, cool down a little then refrigerate.

12. Serve Chilled. Enjoy!!!

And there you have it, folks! Quick and easy Leche flan in under an hour.