Banh Flan – Crème caramel

 

Banh Flan (Photo credit: Vietnamese Soul Food)

Crème caramel, flan, or caramel pudding is a custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top.  Crème caramel is one of the “World’s Greatest Desserts.”

Making flan is easy but it’s difficult to achieve the perfect flan without several tries and using  the right baking techniques. Good Flan is silky and has no hole in it. Here is the collection of Flan Crème caramel recipes.

Recipes

• Recipe  – from Vietnamese Soul Food
• Recipe  – by The Spices of Life
• Recipe  by Chef John from allrecipes.com
• Recipe  –  Mary Berry’s  step-by-step guide to the perfect crème caramel, BBC Food
• Recipe – MeilleurduChef.com
• Recipe – Poh Ling Yeow’s recipe and instruction video, SBS.com.au.  (Yeow was a runner-up in MasterChef Australia (series 1).
• Recipe – “The Secret of making perfect flan,” from The 350 Degree Oven

Cooking tips

• For rich flan, use cream and more egg yolks.
• Best to use half cream and half whole milk.
• Do not over mix eggs.
• Do not over cook the custard
• To prevent flan from burning, put a piece of foil on top of the flan tray.
•  Tips – “The Secret of making perfect flan” from The 350 Degree Oven
  1. The less bubbles you start with in your custard batter, the less bubbles and “chunks” you will end up with in your cooked flan.  Don’t overly agitate your mixture, and make sure you strain it through a sieve.
  2. GENTLE heating is a must!  Control the temperature, and go low and slow… better to slightly undercook than overcook (as the flan will continue to cook once you remove from the oven.)
  3. Insulation!!!! (So that the sides don’t cook faster than the center, ruining the texture.)  Line the bottom of the baking pan with a thick kitchen towel, and use a hot water bath (NOT boiling water bath).
  4. Don’t overcook the caramel!  Caramel can go from perfect to burnt in less then 15 seconds, so babysit your cooking caramel, and do not leave the pot’s side!  Also, remember that crystallization will occur if you don’t cook your caramel the right way – follow all the instructions exactly as written, lest your caramel seize!  Don’t stir the caramel!