Spanish Flan

A couple months back, Ryan got the word "flan" stuck in his head for some reason.  He said it all the time, "Let's get some flan." "I want flan." "Can you make flan?"  I asked him if he even knew what flan is...nope.  I had never made flan, and for some reason had it in my head it would be a pain in the arse.  Yesterday Ryan got his first publication officially accepted to a big, peer-reviewed journal (very exciting in our nerdy little world!), so I asked him what he wanted for dinner to celebrate.  He's easy, he asked for burritos, so I decided we would need some guacamole to start (guac recipe to come later) and something good for dessert.  Well, the first thing I thought of was...flan!  It went with the dinner theme, and would be a fun surprise for Ryan (even if he didn't know what it was).  Much to my delight, flan turned out to not be so tough.  I also got to try a new baking technique, the water bath**.

Spanish Flan
Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
5 eggs
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color.  (Stir the sugar a lot, but you don't need to stir constantly, just make sure it isn't sticking and burning.  The sugar will get chunky before it liquefies, so don't let that worry you!  And if the sugar does not completely liquefy, that's okay too, it will continue to melt when you put the whole thing in the oven.)  Carefully pour the hot syrup formed by the sugar into a 9" round glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides.  Set aside.
3) Place eggs, condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla in a blender and mix just until smooth (this only takes a few seconds).  Pour egg mixture into baking dish.  Cover with aluminum foil (I forgot to cover mine, and it turned out fine, just a bit more browned on top, but not burnt).  To make the water bath**:  place flan dish into a slightly larger baking dish or roasting pan.  Place this in the oven and carefully pour water into the outer dish/pan to within an inch or so of the top of the flan dish (or as high as the outer dish will let you without spilling over).
4) Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes.  Let cool and then place in refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.
5) To serve, carefully go around the outside edge with a small knife to unstick the entire flan and then carefully invert onto a serving plate (it must be completely cooled!).  Make sure to let plenty of that delicious caramel pour all over it!
6) If you're feeling extra sassy, feel free to dress it up for serving.  Try sprinkling some cocoa powder on top, fresh berries, whipped cream, sliced almonds, shaved chocolate...anything that sounds good to you!  I read a recipe that called for preparing a box of chocolate cake mix and pouring that over the top of the flan before baking it all.

** This is the first time I ever used a water bath for baking.  If it's new to you too, and you want to know more about how/why/when to use this baking technique, check this out:  How to make a water bath

enjoy!
 ~ j