This Classic Flan recipe is a silky smooth, classic version of this traditional Latin American dessert. This caramel-topped custard is gently cooked in the oven until it’s firm to the touch. In this recipe we’re using evaporated milk (leche), sweetened condensed milk and the perfect ratio of eggs. This is a super easy flan recipe. Plus, it’s silky smooth with the best texture.
My history with this dish hasn’t always been a love affair. I grew up eating it, reluctantly. When we’d go to restaurants there was always someone in our family ordering and LOVING it. It just was never for me. I’d always try it over and over hoping to fall in love and it never happened. What can I say? I grew up. My tastes changed and now I can’t get enough. I think it’s one of the most magical desserts ever so I couldn’t be more excited for us to be discussing this Latin-American favorite!
What Is Flan?
Let’s talk about basics! Flan is a gently cooked custard with a clear glaze of caramel on its top. I like it when the caramel has been cooked until it’s an auburn brown, the texture of the custard is silky smooth and when I can really taste a hint of vanilla. Where is it from? Well, its origins begin in Spain and through colonization, has traveled to South America, Central America, Mexico and the Philippines. In the Philippines it’s often referred to as crème caramel.
What Are the Main Ingredients to Make Classic Flan?
- Granulated sugar. The 1/2 cup of sugar transforms into a thin layer of caramel that will live on the top.
- Large whole eggs. Whole eggs thicken this entire mixture the egg proteins unwind, and trap in the milk or cream into a soft gel.
- Egg yolks. They contribute to giving this custard a lovely rich quality.
- Kosher salt. You cannot make sweet things without salt. It adds so much balance, even if it doesn’t taste “salty.”
- Sweetened condensed milk. This adds as our sweetener for the custard as well as giving it a luscious texture.
- Evaporated milk. This type of milk is super popular in Latin American desserts because it gives a very strong flavored milk flavor. I love it!
- Vanilla. Who doesn’t love vanilla. It truly makes all desserts a little bit better.
How to Make Caramel for Flan recipe
- Make the caramel top. My favorite way to make caramel is the fool-proof way which is with water. I’ve had success of just cooking sugar all by itself but other times it gives me trouble. I like that doing it with water makes it SO easy. Yes, it takes longer. But eventually it’s nice and even and smooth. It requires a cup sugar and 1/3 cup of water. That’s it!
How to Make Flan
- Pour the caramel into the baking dish or pan. This process goes FAST! So be diligent. Have everything prepped before hand. Working quickly, pour it in the baking pan and move it around until it’s a nice even layer. It will quickly harden and be room temperature. As a result, you’ll have a lovely smooth layer of caramel on top.
- Make the milk mixture. I do this in a blender and it could not be simpler. Add everything to the blender and pulse it up!
- Pour the filling over the hardened caramel. If there are any bubbles on top, you can get rid of them with a blow torch. Or just leave them–no biggie!
- Transfer it to the water bath. The water bath is essential to baking it evenly (see below for more of an explanation).
- Bake it. I like to bake the custard at 325 F (a lot of recipes set the oven to 350). I feel like that’s too hot. It needs to be “low and slow.”
- Cool completely. This is a really important part because it really sets the dish and big note: flan tastes better when it’s cold.
- Remove it. This can be a nerve-wrecking part, but I believe in you! I like to run a paring knife along the outside of the custard, place a plate over it and invert it. I like to give the bottom side of the cake pan a few smacks. And then, I say a prayer, and lift up the cake pan, hoping it’s all in one piece. Bonus: it always is.
Why Is a Water Bath Important When Making Flan?
A water bath (also known as a bain marie), provides an even temperature as it bakes in the oven. Usually how things bake, they cook from the outside in. With flan (or any other type of custards), we want to cook things slowly and evenly. Cooking them in a water bath really helps with achieving this.
The biggest challenge is not eating the stuff warm, straight out of the oven. It’s imperative that they have time to chill on the counter. And super important that they have time to chill in the fridge overnight.
The next afternoon or evening, you’ll take them out, run a knife along the sides, plate them up and watch all the caramel ooze out the sides. So good!
Tips and Tricks
- Use your blender to combine the ingredients super quickly. But it will create some bubbles if you do it for too long. Let it settle before pouring it onto the caramel. If it’s super bubbly when you pour it onto the caramel, you can always use a kitchen torch to burn off the bubbles.
- The water added to the sugar to make the caramel may take longer but it makes the caramel step fool- proof!
- Be sure to run a knife around the inside edge of the pan before inverting the flan onto a plate.
If you make this Classic Flan, let me know on Instagram!
Looking for more Latin Dessert Recipes? Here are some of my favorites:
Classic Flan Recipe
Ingredients
Caramel Topping:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- Pinch kosher salt
Custard Base:
- 4 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or 1/2 of a vanilla bean or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
To Prep:
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.
- Prepare a water bath of some kind. You can make this flan in a variety of vessels. You can use a 8-inch cake pan, 9-inch cake pan or (six) 3-inch ramekins. I used a 9-inch cake pan and a turkey roasting pan.
To Make the Custard Base:
- In a blender, add the eggs, egg yolks, salt, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and/or vanilla. Blend until very smooth, about 30 seconds. You don’t want to get it too frothy so try to avoid over blending. If you do over blend it, let it settle a bit so the bubbles can disappear. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, set over medium-low heat, add the sugar and water. Cook on medium-low heat until the sugar has dissolved into the water completely. Then, turn the heat to high and allow to cook for about 5 full minutes, until the cooked sugar goes from clear to light golden brown. At this point, lower the heat slightly and keep cooking until it turns a golden brown.
- Immediately pour it into the baking pan and twist it around until it’s in an even layer on the bottom.
- Give the custard base a stir, just to make sure it’s still all combined. Pour it on top of the solid caramel. Cover with foil tightly. Transfer the flan to the water bath and fill up the water bath with water from a kettle.
- Cook for 35 to 40 minutes, until slightly jiggly but still firm. Carefully remove it (it'll be hot!) from the oven and set aside.
- Allow to cool on the counter for about 30 minutes and then transfer to the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- When ready to serve, run a knife around the edge and then invert onto a large plate. Smack the top of the pan to loosen the flan and then lift up the cake pan. Slice it up and serve.
Notes
- Use your blender to combine the ingredients super quickly. But it will create some bubbles if you do it for too long. Let it settle before pouring it onto the caramel. If it's super bubbly when you pour it onto the caramel, you can always use a kitchen torch to burn off the bubbles.
- The water added to the sugar to make the caramel may take longer but it makes the caramel step fool- proof!
- Be sure to run a knife around the inside edge of the pan before inverting the flan onto a plate.
Made this today, first timer. It was outstanding! Made it in an 8 inch pan. I may have overcooked the caramel, but the touch of bitterness contrasted with the sweetness of the Custer perfectly! Have a question though. Want to confirm the caramel is 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup water and pinch of kosher salt. Seemed like I had a lot of caramel and a lot stuck in the bottom of the pan. There was still plenty on the flan. Thanks and thanks for this delicious recipe. Will be making this a lot! Lilly
wow wonderful to hear! that is the right amount.
I have made many many different flan recipes this is hands down the best I’ve ever come across. I really don’t think I’m ever going to make any other after this. I will say though it took a lot longer than 40 minutes. This recipe has the perfect sweetness to Salt ratio and it doesn’t call for cream cheese I swear 90% of blonde recipes these days called for cream cheese and cream cheese just detracts from the vanilla and milky flavor you don’t want it to taste like cheesecake you want it to taste like milk and vanilla like custard not like cheesecake. I’m so glad I found this recipe. I do not have my readers on and my battery my phone is almost dead so picky typo lady I hope you don’t tear apart my comment sheesh!
This was not a great recipe. I’m an avid cook and this was a fail for me. Specifically the oven temp and timing. It was NOT even close to done at 325 for 40 minutes. I had to up the heat and add more time and hope for the best.
So delicious. My husband is not a sweets fan but he loves this flan. He has requested this be his birthday dessert this year.
*Question: Can I double this to make a thicker flan?
Does the water bath need to be hot, warm or room temperature?
ideally it’s hot but it really doesn’t matter because it’ll warm up in the oven! 😉
The water bath is called a Bain Marie, and ideally, for a custard, the water should be heated but not boiling, as you can cook the egg mixture on the outsides and bottom of the pan too quickly and get scrambled eggs. I like to get my teapot to almost boiling (you can hear the bottom of the teapot creak and expand with the heat and if you swish the water in the teapot around, it will distribute the small steam pockets) and the pour it in the pan carefully around the custard pan. I also like to heat the egg mixture up slowly in a double boiler until just warmed and a little thicker from the corn starch (if you use corn starch in your recipe, that is- I use this instead of flour, as it makes the pie silkier and you don’t taste it like with flour), stirring constantly until you can dip your finger in and it is luke warm. Custard is much better if it is baked slowly and on a lower heat. I do not cover my pie with tin foil, but if you do, leave it loosely vented and always poke a hole in the middle for steam to escape. I love the silicone crust protectors, too. They work great. Good luck on your future bakes!
First time making flan. I’m super thankful to find this recipe since every other recipe calls for a flan pan, which I do not own. And, I was pleasantly surprised that we can use other household pans as an alternative. This recipe was easy to follow. I only had about 5oz of condensed milk on hand and the mixture tasted just sweet enough so hoping it all turns out. I’m excited to try this out!
The knife that you are speaking of is a “paring knife”, not a “pairing knife.” Whatever happened to proof readers and editors? Mistakes like these just make you look not very well educated. A cook who calls that knife a “pairing knife”? A knife that wants to get married or something? Come on.
you need to calm down ellen. you left this recipe on thanksgiving. were you bored that day? were you miserable?
You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar, Ellen.
Instead of tearing someone else down for a simple mistake, why not gently suggest that there is a typo and provide the correct spelling in case the person does not know the difference in spellings?
Sometimes autocorrect thinks you are writing a word and will finish it with the wrong one. Not everyone is great in everything they do or say.
Cut people some slack. You never know what they have gone through or are going through.
What a rude comment. Wow, Ellen. You need to learn to be nicer and if you want to be picky, start your own webpage ✌
Leaving 5 stars because my husband, who’s from Guatemala loved it! He cannot stop raving about it. He says it’s the best flan he’s ever had and that now I’ll have to make it so there’s always some in the fridge. He said it’s very rich but not overpowering. He wanted to eat 2, one after the other, but he had a bit of self control. Personally for me it had too strong of a milk taste for me to thoroughly enjoy it, but then again I’m not a fan of regular flan anyway. It was good, just not for me. I think if I would use whole mile I would love it, but I’m no longer allowed to change it because my husband wants it exactly like this all the time. Lol! I followed the recipe exactly and came out perfect.
love hearing this!
I am trying this kind of recipe for the first time so some things are new to me. I am using 6-3” ramekins, but there is so much custard that I think it should call for 6-4” ramekins. I’m not sure how high the water in the water bath should be, so am winging it. You said to pour the water from a kettle, but should it be cold or hot? I went for just barely warm because of the newly poured hot caramel. Will the ramekins cook faster than a cake pan? I would think so, so I will be checking at 20 minutes and intervals after until just jiggly.
Update: Well, the water bath should use boiling water or it will take a LOT longer. Six 4″ ramekins works well and still took about 40 minutes of cook time. Everyone loved the final product!
How high should the boiling water cover the flan pan? Trying this recipe for the first time too.