Flan is a rich, creamy custard dessert that is widely popular in Spain. If you’ve ever wondered how to make it, you’ll want to try this recipe. It’s an undeniably decadent dessert that’s easy to make, and it’s soooooo good you’ll want a second — and maybe even a third — helping.

Flan is a Spanish dessert made of egg custard with a caramel topping. It reminds me of crème brûlée without the flame-hardened caramel topping. Instead, flan has a rich, soft caramel sauce.

If you’ve ever had flan, you know all about its creamy, rich goodness. If you haven’t had it, you’re in for a real treat. It’s one of my most favorite desserts, and easy to make with only a few basic ingredients — milk, eggs, and sugar. The result is quite impressive: rich, creamy, and so decadent it’ll blow you away.

The most challenging part of this recipe is making the caramel topping, which can easily burn if not stirred and watched like a hawk. The baking method also uses a water bath, which requires two pans: one large and one small.

The small pan is what you’ll use to make the flan itself. The larger pan will need to have high side walls and large enough for the smaller pan to fit inside. This is important to moderate the heat while baking and ensure that the flan cooks evenly.

Worry-Free Cooking

Flan comes in a variety of shapes using pans ranging from Bundt, round, square, and individual sizes. For this recipe, I use this 9-inch Round Cake Pan because it cooks evenly and fits well inside the second pan that I use for the water bath.

For the water bath, I use this 11-inch Baking Sheet. It provides ample room for water and the cake pan.

Menu Planning

This is an ideal make ahead dessert, especially since it needs to cool in the fridge. You can make this up to two days in advance. Simply cover the pan tightly and refrigerate, and then turn it out of the pan when you’re ready to serve.

Serve individual flan servings at parties and small gatherings. Instead of using a cake pan, use 9-ounce Oven Safe Ramekins. You’ll want to make your caramel in a cake pan, as directed, and then pour into the individual ramekins before adding the custard.

Helping Hand

If you’re a fan of the caramel topping and want more of it, it’s as simple as adding more sugar. Be careful, though. Too much sugar in the pan will burn easily. Consider caramelizing a double batch of sugar in two separate pans and then combining into one before adding the custard.

Use almond or orange extract instead of vanilla for whole new exciting experience. They’re all so good.

For a rich, creamy flan you’ll want to use whole milk vs. low fat, 2%, skim, or otherwise. When measuring, use the empty sweetened condensed milk can instead of a measuring cup. One less dish to wash – yay!

Add an 8-ounce package of cream cheese to the egg mixture for a tangier, more cheesecake-like dessert. You’ll want to use cream cheese that’s softened to room temperature and use a mixer to blend everything together into a smooth consistency.

Use canned coconut cream instead of sweetened condensed milk to make the Puerto Rican version of this dish called flan de coco. Garnish with toasted coconut — heavenly!

Bring the flan to room temperature before turning it out of the pan. To turn it out, run a butter knife around the inside edge of the pan to loosen the flan from the edges. Place the serving plate upside down onto the pan and then invert the pan onto the plate. Carefully lift the pan off the custard. Be sure to let all the caramel sauce drip out of the pan an onto the flan.

Rich and Creamy Spanish Flan

Recipe by Annette (•‿•)

This flan recipe makes an undeniably decadent dessert that’s quick and easy. It’s an impressive and tasty dessert that you can make ahead of time for family dinners, holidays, and gatherings.

Course: DessertCuisine: Hispanic

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

hour

minutes

Total time

hour

minutes

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on

Ingredients

1 cup 1 sugar
1/3 cup 1/3 water
2 cans 2 sweetened condensed milk
4 large 4 eggs
1 teaspoon 1 vanilla extract
28 ounces 28 whole milk
1/8 teaspoon 1/8 salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 300° F.
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add condensed milk, whole milk, and vanilla and continue to beat until smooth. Set aside while you make the caramel sauce.
Add sugar and water to a small saucepan and mix until well blended. Cook the sugar on medium heat, letting the sugar turn light amber color before stirring. Continue to heat the sugar and stir until the sugar reaches a dark golden color. Remove from heat and immediately pour into the bottom of baking pan, turning the pan as needed to evenly coat the bottom.
Pour egg mixture on top of the caramel sauce in the baking pan.
Place the filled baking pan into the larger pan on the oven rack. Fill the larger pan with boiling hot water to within 1/2-inch of the top of the filled pan.
Bake for 1 to 1-1/2 hours until set and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Carefully remove the flan from the water bath and run a butter knife around the edges to loosen of the flan from the pan. Let cool, then refrigerate at least three hours or until ready to serve.
Garnish with whipped cream and berries, as desired.
Serve and enjoy!

Grocery & Gourmet

I grew up with Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk and it remains a staple in my kitchen today.

Worry-Free Cooking

11-inch Baking SheetView Details
9-inch Round Cake PanView Details
Set of 6 Fine Porcelain RamekinsView Details

If you enjoyed this recipe, please consider leaving a comment and star rating below. It’s always refreshing to hear how others like a recipe, find success with it, or tweak to suit. I’d love to hear from you!