If you love these delicious caramel flavors, you’ll also love my Southern Caramel Cake, my Homemade Cream Caramels, and this Caramel Apple Eclair Cake! Flan was an acquired taste for me. When I first moved to New Jersey, I had an amazing multicultural experience with a lot of friends from different nationalities – Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican – who all LOVED making flan. It’s a popular dessert recipe in each of those and other Latin American countries, and was definitely the most popular homemade dessert for most of the people I was living around. For a long while though I thought I wasn’t a fan. The flan was too eggy or rubbery – but then I had THIS flan de queso recipe and I fell in love. It’s SO good. And the only real difference is that we are adding a brick of cream cheese to the flan mixture. If this is your first time making flan, don’t worry. It’s really not that complicated. The most difficult thing is baking it in a water bath, but when done slowly and carefully, it’s perfect every time!
What does flan taste like?
If you aren’t familiar with flan, the closest dessert I can think of that most people might know is creme brulee. They are quite similar and have a sweet, creamy custard flavor and texture with strong vanilla and caramel notes. This delicious flan recipe is made with whole eggs, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and cream cheese, with a homemade caramel sauce. If you love creamy desserts, you’ll also love my Mississippi Mud Pie, this Classic Watergate Salad, and or these individual Cheesecake Jars!
Why We Love This Recipe
Customize this recipe to make your favorite flavor of flan! You only need a handful of simple ingredients for this recipe. It’s super easy to make flan, and its chilling time means it’s great for making ahead!
What You’ll Need
Scroll down to the recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Granulated Sugar – We’ll be making our own caramel sauce with white sugar and water. Water – You’ll need boiling water to make the ‘baño maria,’ or water bath that is important to achieving that custard texture. Eggs – These give the flan is signature texture and richness. Evaporated Milk – Adds to the creaminess of the dessert. You can also use coconut milk, which is a popular flan variation in a number of countries, to give it a slight coconut flavor if you like. Sweetened Condensed Milk – This will go a long way to give the flan that classic creamy texture and sweetness. Cream Cheese – You can leave this ingredient out and make the recipe exactly the same otherwise for a more traditional Spanish flan recipe, but it adds such a fantastic smoothness and richness and mouthfeel that it is what makes this my favorite flan recipe. Vanilla Extract – This will give the flan a subtle warm sweetness that melds well with the caramel flavor.
How to Make Mexican Flan
Storage & Freezing Instructions
Flan should only be kept at room temperature for a maximum of 2 hours. Store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap for up to 3 days. You can freeze flan for up to 2 months to keep it fresh for later! Simply defrost it overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
Tips for Success
Baking pan. If you use a round baking pan with a removable bottom, you’ll want to wrap the bottom and the sides of the pan with aluminum foil to keep water from getting into the flan mixture from the water bath. To Serve. Serve your homemade flan with a dollop of whipped cream, or with fresh berries on the side.
Substitutions and Variations
Make different flavors. Add 1 teaspoon of grated orange zest to the mix to make an Orange flan. You could also use coconut, coffee, or chocolate to make some other popular flavors of flan. You can also use a different flavored extract other than Vanilla Extract. Try Almond Extract, Maple Extract, or Cherry Extract! Whole Milk: You can replace the sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk with 2¾ cups whole milk or half-and-half + an additional ½ cup sugar. Coconut Milk: You can also replace the evaporated milk with coconut milk.
More Delicious Dessert Recipes
Indiana Sugar Cream Pie Salted Caramel Pumpkin Panna Cotta Salted Caramel Cheesecake Bars No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie No-Bake Chocolate Eclair Cake
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Tres Leches Cake
The Best Churros Recipe
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