Editor’s note: This is the sixth post in our Flan Week celebration in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

I grew up in a Cuban household where food, familia, and fiesta were the main ingredients.  My father loved to cook and was frankly great at it. Being that I enjoyed and devoured every meal he created, traditional and non, I blamed the curves that were developing to the home cooking.  It wasn’t until later on in life that I realized I suffered from my own body image issues and did much in my power to erase those curves.  Today I am proud to say I am older and wiser and have made it my life’s mission to find the balance between health & fitness without losing the culture.  Like I often say, lose the fat never the culture.

When my dad passed away almost 8 yrs ago in my own desperation to feel closer to him I hit the kitchen. I never liked to cook and stayed as far away from the stove as I could due to fear that I would never cook as well as he did.  Although I would trade the kitchen to have him back just for one more day, I connect with him through cooking and ask him for tips on what to throw into a dish. I truly believe he guides me.  Today I must admit, I have developed a love to cook that I never imagined would.

The recipes found in my book “….Barbara por Atras” A Latin Woman’s Guide to Fitness are only a few of my favorite Latino dishes transformed to adopt a healthier life.  I like to keep true to my roots by implementing natural herbs and spices, cutting down on the fat, and thinking outside the box. It is with my greatest pleasure that I share with you my rendition of one of our cultures favorite: The Flan. I can assure you, not you nor your guests will ever think it low fat! Buen Aprovecho y Gracias Papi…..

Barbara’s Low Fat Flan

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1⁄2 bar of fat free cream cheese
• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 can evaporated fat free or 2% milk
• 1 can fat free condensed milk

Preparation

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a small saucepan over low heat add sugar stirring occasionally until it caramelizes. Transfer the caramelized sugar onto a 10-inch baking pan and evenly spread throughout the bottom of the pan.
3. Place it aside to cool off.
4. Blend remaining ingredients in a blender until well mixed.
5. Once sugar is cool add blended mixture into the baking pan. Cover with aluminum foil, place in a “Baño Maria”* and bake for 1 hour or until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Once baked remove from oven and  ”Bano Maria”, set aside and let cool.
6. Place in refrigerator overnight.
7. The following day remove it from the baking pan by gently removing it from the edges with a knife, place your serving dish on top covering the baking pan and flip.
8. It’s ready to serve!  A perfect ending to a great meal!

*Baño Maria is when you place one dish into another with water in it. In this case you will fill a pan 1/3 its way with water and place the baking dish inside making sure the water does not spill into it. You are cooking with the heated water and oven.  Don’t ask, I have NO idea who Maria is and what this technique has to do with her bath. Leave it to us Latinos…..

With an approach centered on empowerment and self-acceptance, Barbara Trujillo-Gomez 
is one of the country’s most well loved fitness and wellness experts. Her message is simple: healthy is the ultimate standard of beauty. A fitness, yoga, nutrition and cardiovascular guru; the founder of her own fitness brand – B&B Fit; the author of the exceedingly popular “…Barbara por Atras” – A Latin Woman’s Guide to Fitness; and a leading expert on multicultural health and wellness issues.

Editor’s note: This is the sixth post in our Flan Week celebration in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Today is the turn of  Ericka, our The Culture of Food regular contributor and author of Nibbles and Feasts. Ericka shares with us a story and recipe of a traditional and easy flan de cajeta from Mexico . We hope you’ve been enjoying Flan Week and come back for the last recipe {Fat-Free Flan?!} tomorrow.

The smell of simmering cajeta at my grandmother’s house signified two things: Autumn had arrived, and obleas.  We would spend endless nights watching telenovelas and assembling cajeta and obleas (wafers) into little sandwiches of delight.  Wrapping them in cellophane and tying them with blue ribbons to sell at her convenience for 20 centavos. Cajeta is my greatest indulgence because it  sparks my greatest memories of spending time with my grandmother in her kitchen. Being flan week, I could not pass up the opportunity to celebrate than with none other than Flan de Cajeta.

Easy Flan de Cajeta Recipe

Ingredients:

For caramel
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water

For Flan:
¾ cup cajeta (preferably goat’s milk caramel)
2 ½ cups half-and-half
1 strip of lime zest (about 1” wide)
1 vanilla bean
3 whole large eggs
4 egg yolks

Directions for Caramel:
In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and water to boil.  Swirl or stir slowly until sugar has dissolved and the caramel has turned into an amber color.  Watch for darkening of color but be carful not to burn.

Immediately pour caramel in flan ramekins and swirl to coat bottom and a bit of the sides.

Directions for Flan:
Preheat oven to 350F

In medium sauce pan, put cajeta, half-n-half, and lime zest.  Split vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape seeds into pan.  Simmer and stir until smooth.

In a separate mixing bowl, wisk together eggs and yolks.  Slowly add to cajeta mixture and stir slowly.  Remove from heat and pass through a strainer.  Carefully ladle mixture into ramekins.

In a hot water bath, bake for 30-40 minutes until edges are set.  Center should still be a bit wobbly.

Remove from water and let cool for at least 30 minutes, flan should continue to set.  Unmold before serving.

Makes 6-8 flans

Ericka Sánchez–Proudly born in Torreón, Coahuila Mexico, Ericka arrived in the United States in 1982 to El Paso, Texas. Her love of food began in her mom’s kitchen but flourished in a food photography studio where she assisted in food styling/design and photo shoots.Now a wife and a mom to a 2-year old toddler, Ericka launched her bilingual blog Nibbles & Feasts in 2010 as a guide to satiating food cravings through recipes and to share her restaurant recommendations and food events in Los Angeles. You can read all of Ericka´s recipes here.

{Photo Courtesy of Bren Herrera}

To be enticed with other flavors, check out my blog, Flanboyant Eats, every day where I do a #FlanFriday and feature a new flavored flan!

Flan Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Flan

Ingredients:

6 tbsp. sugar
4 whole eggs, whisked
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup pumpkin purée (canned will do)
3/4 cup 2% or whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

Directions:

For custard: In a bowl, combine eggs, sweetened condensed & whole milk, pumpkin purée, spices and extract.  Whisk for about 2 minutes. Set aside.

For caramel: Add sugar to the aluminum flan mold and bring to medium-high heat. Allow all of the sugar to melt down until golden caramel, stirring constantly. Do not allow sugar to burn. When sugar is fully dissolved into caramel, carefully coat the bottom and sides of the flan mold using hand towels to hold the pan. Use a brush if you are not experienced in handling extremely hot caramel. Let sit for two minutes until sugar sets. Pour flan mixture into pan using a medium mesh hand strainer.

Baking the Flan: If you have a traditional 10″ flan pan, cover entirely with aluminum foil. If using a more updated version, cover lid and shut tight with latches. Add two cups of water to a large saucepan and gently place flan pan into the baño de Maria. Bring to boil for 45-60 minutes or until custard is fully cooked, but not too firm. Once the flan is fully cooked, immediately low heat and let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove flan pan from the baño de Maria and discard excess water from saucepan.

Do not remove flan from pan. Refrigerate for 7-9 hours or overnight. To serve, loosen the sides of the flan all the way around using a butter knife. Take a large plate, place upside down on top of flan and flip!

Bren Herrera is a Cuban-born American that lives for food, fashion, travel & music–the 4 elements that keep her busy while entertaining others. As a private chef and food writer and blogger, Bren loves introducing to her clients her Cuban roots through her cuisine but also infuses techniques and flavors she’s adopted from her international travels. She cooks in stilettos, owns 9 stovetop espresso makers and starts her day with a doble of Cuban espresso. Her food blog, Flanboyant Eats™, a cheeky wordplay on the Latin custard flan, has garnered her global attention and accolades from revered chefs which whom she’s worked with. Because of her food blog’s name, Bren has been dubbed the “Flan Queen” has over 45 flavors to indulge in. She has written a weekly column LATINA Magazine, Dean & DeLuca and other notable print and online publications. Bren blogs at: www.flanboyanteats.com and www.bsochic.blogspot.com and can be found on Twitter and Facebook under her name.

{Photo Courtesy of Maria Amelia}

Editor’s note: This is the fourth post in our Flan Week celebration in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Today is the turn of  María Amelia,  creator of Mommylogue.com, and the community leader of and a blogger for Blogsdemamas.com de Todobebé.  María Amelia shares with us a story about traditional Spanish Flan. We hope you come back all week to check out so many different ways of making flan in Latin America and Spain!

Ah Spain. España de mi alma. I love it. It is in every fiber of my being, implanted there by my mother and my father. My mother, of course, was born and raised there. My father is American of Puerto Rican parents, but studied medicine there and fell in love with my mother… and with it. And so, as I mentioned in an earlier post on this site, my sister and I spent every summer in Spain, and the remaining three seasons waiting to return.

How did I ever make it through Fall, Winter and Spring? Well, one way was living vicariously through the letters I received from my family and friends in Madrid. A second was the occasional care package delivering much anticipated clothing and treats. The package would arrive wrapped in brown paper and tied with brown string, and a full quarter of it was covered in stamps. Unwrapping it revealed excellent quality clothing, a year ahead of la moda in the States. Pre-Christmas, however, it also contained the classic sweets of la epoca – turrón, mantecados, yemas and polvorones.

Naturally, food and music carried us through the rest of the months. Not a lot of Spanish food was imported into the United States in the 70s and 80s. Many Americans (mistakenly) still regarded Spain as not completely ¨modern¨ or what have you, and the reality of a fascist government followed by an evolving democracy made America´s doors open ever so sloooowly to Spain´s outstanding, artisanal quality of food people all over the United States enjoy today. So, my mother made due with what was available. She cooked us typical Spanish dishes, using ingredients purchased here or brought back with us from one of our trips. The taste was never exactly identical, but it was close enough. 

A few things translated well. Tortilla Española was one. Arroz con pollo was another. But there is no substitute for the marisco of the coasts of the Mediterraneo or Cantábrico, the cordero of Castilla or, of course, the jamón. For these we waited all year long and then enjoyed them with gusto. I love Spanish food, and if I were asked what my last meal would be it would be some typical plato Castellano.

Here´s the rub. For all of its centuries and centuries of tradition, Spain – traditionally – was not a power house of desserts. Now, before anyone gets offended, I am not saying that typical, traditional Spanish desserts are not works of art. They are. They are pure, wholesome works of the land from which they are produced. And today, with the advent of the modern Spanish chef who for the last few years have been turning the world of cuisine on its ear, Spain has made advances in desserts akin to that first step for mankind. However, culturally, traditionally it did not achieve the levels of complexity of its neighbors to the East or South. Spain´s traditional desserts were of the people, el pueblo, a lot of which was poor. And so the most typical of Spanish desserts incorporate basic ingredients elevated to the sublime. SUBLIME. And so you see, I am not showing a lack of respect to Spanish desserts, rather I am saying that what my ancestors did was take the ordinary and make it divine.

And herein comes el flan. Eggs, milk, sugar, lemon. Punto y se acabó. Its origins are ancient. There are variations of flan all over the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the world, but how could there not be? It is custard. Eggs, milk, sugar. These are three of the most basic ingredients of life. Add to this lemon as the precursor for the caramelo, and we´re done. Traditional flan – the flan of my mother´s generation, of the older generations – is just that. Add anything else to it and they will tell you it´s not flan. It´s ¨a flan¨ but it´s not ¨flan¨. This is not to say that these flans are wrong or bad, or that theirs is better. My parents, or uncles or aunts will still eat a variation on flan, enjoy it immensely and lick the spoon. But after they´re done, they´ll look you in the face and tell you it´s not ¨flan¨.

So what is flan to a traditionalist? Flan is part of the culture. Flan is what generations of Spaniards made with pride to celebrate special occasions. That much sugar was not to be used lightly, especially in times of poverty or war.  Flan is in the genes. Flan is respected. Flan is enjoyed.

My mother´s flan is a work of art. It is big, it is soft, it is delicate and it is all her love, her pride, her family tradition and her heritage, folded in milk, egg yolk and sugar and cooked under pressure in a baño maría. Each time she makes it, it consumes her. Everything else is cleared out of the way, the ingredients are taken out and the ancient dance begins. The look on her face reflects how seriously she is taking the preparation. The pot she uses, the flanero brought back with her from Madrid, is probably as old as I am if not part of her ajuar which would make it older, and it is as clean as the day it was bought. Making her flan is as much a dance as it is a battle against physics and chemistry to make these proteins, acids and carbohydrates defy their true natures and combine into the softest quivering mass of divine inspiration allowed to us here on earth. A flan is to desserts what Stravinsky´s ¨Sacre du Printemps¨ depicted for spring, or what Debussy´s ¨La Mer¨ was to the romantic idea of the ocean. It is an explosive conversion of the elements to produce a gentle result.

When she makes her flan, my mother experiences emotions and carnal memories of days past. Making flan exhausts her, not just because it is tricky but because the flood gates of time open and memories of moments punctuated by flan return – some happy, but more often bittersweet. Just as flan for me is represented in my mother, flan for her is represented in memories of her mother and of her childhood. And so that genetic connection of which I spoke at the beginning is sparked by this ancient custard.

Once the ingredients are combined, she gingerly lifts the flanero and places it in the olla de presión. There is the element of danger. And the moment of truth comes after removing the flanero and cooling the custard as this is when the delicate mass is inverted and the pot is pulled off. One wrong move, a sudden jolt, the wrong temperature, an uneven plate, or worse an undetected error in its preparation, and all that egg, sugar and milk are lost. My mother´s flan is no little individual flan. It stands proudly at several inches in height and feeds the family during Nochebuena, or Domingo de Resurrección or other special occasions.

Recently I had the good fortune of eating flan at a restaurant called “Jaleo” outside of Washington DC. It is one of Chef José Andrés´ restaurants. In case you haven´t heard of him, José Andrés is a very well respected and successful Spanish chef here in the States who has done a lot to educate Americans on food from Spain. My husband, daughters and I decided to celebrate my birthday there, and for dessert I ordered the ¨flan al estilo tradicional con espuma de crema catalana¨ or traditional style flan with crema catalana foam. It was excellent and I enjoyed every spoonful.

So. Is traditional Spanish flan the best? No, but it is my favorite for what it means to me. Does it have its place in the culture of Spain? Yes, and for that we are proud and grateful. Are there other typical Spanish desserts? Yes, there are many from all over the different regions of Spain. And there are other custards as well. Crema catalana is one. My mother´s favorite dessert, in fact, is not flan. It is natillas which is another custard. Finally, can I give you my mother´s recipe for flan? No because if I do she will kill me.

Next time you decide to have flan, try a simple traditional one. Sit down and eat it slowly. Maybe you will experience a spark as well.

Maria Amelia is the mother of three beautiful girls and the wife of the world’s gentlest and most intelligent dentist. She is the daughter of a proud Madrileña and a Puerto Rican American father who dedicated his career to bringing life into the world. She is the creator of Mommylogue.com, and she is the community leader of and a blogger for Blogsdemamas.com de Todobebé. Maria Amelia loves her family and her heritage, and is pleased to be able to share her thoughts on all of it.

Editor’s note: This is the third post in our Flan Week celebration in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Today is the turn of  Morena, half the team behind the blog Perú Delights and she brings us a traditional Crema Volteada {Flan} from Perú.. We hope you come back all week to check out so many different ways of making flan in Latin America and Spain!

Nothing in the world is easier to make than a Flan, or its mother, the gracious French lady called Crème Caramel. For Latin Americans, our love of flan is in our genes, in our blood, and in our surprisingly sweet palate. It is popular all across Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, and even though it may have lots of regional variations, it’s chore is always the same: baked milk and eggs covered in caramel. I have eaten it since I was a little girl, so did my parents, and so have my children, and I don’t think this continuity is going to end any time soon.

In Peru children start their love affair with Flan at a very early age. There isn’t one single kid who hasn’t carried a portion of Flan in his/her school lunchbox, or a house or restaurant that doesn’t make it regularly. It’s a dessert to celebrate everything, to comfort anyone, and to have in hand just to satisfy the cravings for something sweet. Nobody is free from indulging in this velvety, vanilla flavored custard covered with caramel sauce… So rich and addictive, but at the same time so innocent and homey.

The name is confusing for many people, especially because in French pastry vocabulary, a Flan is a kind of tart with a baked crust and a creamy filling. What we Latinos know as Flan is something quite different but equally delightful. Peruvians also call it Crema Volteada, which literally means “upside down cream”, and have turned their love for this ubiquitous dessert into a creative force, producing many versions of the original with as many flavors and textures as is possible to imagine: cream cheese, apple, pear, raisins, quinoa, lúcuma, coconut, corn, prunes, cinnamon… However, hands down, the original plain vanilla is the favorite all over the country.

Leche Asada is another dessert from Colonial times that resembles Flan, even though it´s less sweet, not as rich, and has a burnt top layer. It’s made with fresh milk instead, baked without the caramel, and the outer surface is burnt with a hot cast iron, (so it definitely is not a Crème Brulée or Crema Catalana either).

Here is our very simple and surefire recipe for Flan. We use evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and eggs, all mixed together in a blender, and baked in a water bath, a.k.a. “bain marie”, to get that soft, creamy, delicate texture. It’s so easy that you can make it with success even if you’ve never boiled a pan of water in your life. The amount of eggs varies from recipe to recipe, and if you prepare it with whole milk instead, the result will be lighter and less creamy, but still delicious. A disfrutar!

CREMA VOLTEADA (makes 8 portions)

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk
6 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence Directions

*Preheat the oven at 375 F.

*In a saucepan heat the sugar over medium high heat, moving constantly until it melts and forms a liquid caramel. Be careful not to let it burn because it will taste bitter. When it’s ready pour into a ( 9 inch) baking pan, covering all the inner surface with the caramel. Be very careful with your fingers, and don’t even dream of tasting it with your tongue. Hot caramel is dangerous. Let it cool.

*Blend eggs, milk, and vanilla essence in a mixer. Pour into the baking pan.

*Put the baking pan inside a larger pan with about 2 fingers high of hot water.

*Bake for 1 hour. Let it cool completely.

*When cool, run a knife around the border and turn the flan over a bigger plate.

*To soften the hard caramel at the bottom of the baking pan, put the empty baking pan over medium heat, with 1/3 cup water. Stir with a spoon until it softens and becomes liquid again, and pour over the flan.

*Keep refrigerated, and share with your loved ones.

Morena Cuadrais half the team behind Peru Delights, a Peruvian food blog she created with her daughter, also Morena. They write about their country`s cuisine, with both a traditional perspective and an open mind with a healthy twist. Morena is a journalist, a trained chef and a wine expert, and has edited and published several magazines and book collections. She’s a founding member of the Peruvian Guild of Wine Specialists, and she directed a cooking school in Lima until 2008. She now lives in Virginia,USA.

{All photos in this post are courtesy of Morena Cuadra}

Editor’s note: This is the second post in our Flan Week celebration in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Today is the turn of Chef Uchi from Latino Food Lovers and she brings us a Malbec flan alfajor. She says: “This is a classic family recipe of flan with caramel and whipped cream with some modernized modifications to delight. When accompanied by whipped cream and dulce de leche, the flan is called ‘mixto’ (mixed).” We hope you come back all week to check out all the different ways of making flan!

Memories often inspire us. To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, I was inspired by two sublime memories: the alfajores I savored during my childhood and good wine shared with friends.

In Argentina, there are alfajores of all kinds. You can find regional alfajores (such as the Santa Fe, the cordobeces, Mar del Plata) and the commercial ones.

Another major inspiration is the wine. In Argentina, like in most Latin America, it is the perfect companion for a barbecue (asados). There are different varieties, although Malbec has become an icon for the Argentinean wine industry.

For my recipe, I have used a touch of Malbec. For its presentation I gave this dessert an alfajor shape. It is why I called it “Malbec flan alfajor”.

Hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:

250 grs. sugar

740 ml whole milk

1 vanilla extract

1 1/2 tablespoon Malbec

250 grs. sugar

7 eggs

1 egg yolk

Dulce de leche (to taste)

Chantilly cream (to taste)

Chocolate or caramel decoration

Preparation:

Caramel

1. Prepare caramel with 250 grs. sugar and a little water in a saucepan  and cook until it begins to turn brown

2. Pour the caramel into ramekins

Flan

1. Mix milk, vanilla, Malbec wine and half the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil in bain marie

2. Mix eggs and yolks with half the sugar

3. Add the mixture from step 2 in step 1

4. Strain the mixture through a chinoise

4. Fill the molds with the mixture and place in a deep pan with water

5. Bake at low heat (300˚F) for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the dessert gets a thick consistency

6. Let it cool and place in the refrigerator (if possible overnight)

7. Pass a knife around sides of the flan

8. Remove the mold on a tray

9. Connect the two flans with a drop of dulce de leche

10. Serve with some whipped cream and chocolate or caramel decoration

Chef Uchi Davidzon was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is a food writer and dessert guide at About.com, a digital property of The New York Times Co. Uchi is a Pastry Chef from FCI (French Culinary Institute New York) who was awared Les Dame D´Escoffier NYC 2010. She is the founder of Lola Mora Catering NYC and publishes the Latin Food Lovers blog which was awarded the best food blog by Blogs By Latinas Awards 2011. 

The contents of this posting, including, but not limited to its text, graphics, video, and images is the exclusive property of Luciana Davidzon and is used here with her express permission. Said contents may not subsequently be used or reproduced in any way without express written permission from Ms. Davidzon. Copyright © 2011 by Luciana Davidzon. All rights reserved.

{© SpanglishBaby Media}

As you all know, we’re celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month until mid October. Ana and I wanted to do something a bit different this year and so we came up with the idea of dedicating one whole week to the time-honored Latin dessert that unites us all: FLAN.

We’ve invited fellow Latina bloggers to share their flan recipes and stories with all of us in the days coming up! And there’ll be something for everyone. Check out the list of blogueras and the flans they’ll be making:

• Morena from Peru Delights {Crema Volteada from Peru}
• Ericka from Nibbles & Feasts {Flan de Cajeta from Mexico}
• Maria from Mommylogue {Traditional Spanish Flan}
• Uchi from Latin Food Lovers {Malbec Flan Alfajor from Argentina}
• Bren from Flanboyant Eats {Surprise Flan by the creator of #FlanFridays}

“Es bien fácil“, or so says my mother-in-law as she’s melting sugar to make caramel and mixing a bunch of ingredients in the blender. She is trying to prove to me how easy it is to make flan de queso from scratch. Mind you, not only has she been cooking since she was born, but somehow she always fails to remember I couldn’t be more clumsy in the kitchen.

Unfortunately – and in what many would describe as in very non-Latina fashion – I hail from a long list of inept mujeres when it comes to the kitchen. I hate to admit it, but it’s my reality. Growing up, mi papá was the one who took care of our nourishment. It wouldn’t be fair to call him just a cook, though. He actually deserves the title of chef, for his dishes were always the most delicious treats. He had a knack for transforming a few mismatched ingredients into finger-licking meals. Food has always been extremely important in my family. My father firmly believed in “barriga llena, corazón contento” which loosely translates into eating well will bring you happiness. Coincidentally, he used to say the same thing as my mother-in-law about the ease of cooking – I’ll never understand why.

Flan de la Abuela: Y-U-M-M-Y!!!

Anyhow, my mother-in-law’s recipe for flan de queso has been posted on my fridge for at least a year now. I haven’t had the audacity to attempt making it. Truth be told, I’m afraid of failing. But, since Valentine’s is coming up and my husband has been more understanding than usual these last few weeks with the craziness my life has become in preparation for the launch of SpanglishBaby, I will go for it. And also, I have to admit, it’s important for me to learn how to make meals and desserts like this one, so Vanessa can learn more about our culture. After all, food is a huge part of our identity!

You might want to do the same with your children or maybe you’re just more skilled and adventurous in the kitchen than I am, so I’ve decided to share Abuelita Ivette’s recipe for what’s arguably the best flan de queso my palate has ever tasted…

Ingredients:

1 – can evaporated milk

1 – can condensed milk

3 – large eggs

1 – 8 oz. package of cream cheese

1 – tsp. vanilla extract (or liqueur of your choice)

sugar and water (for the caramel.)

Directions:

• Mix all the ingredients–minus the sugar and the water–in the blender. Set it aside.

• Pour enough sugar in a metal pan to cover its bottom and add just a bit of water on medium heat. Stir occasionally until it becomes a light brown liquid.

• As soon as that happens, pour it into a mold. Make sure you spread so it covers the bottom of the mold evenly. Wait until the caramel hardens, it will happen fairly quickly.

• Then, pour the mixture from the blender into the mold. Cover it with foil paper and take to the oven which has been preheated to 350 F. The mold needs to be cooked using a method called baño maria. This means you boil water in a larger pan and place the mold inside it into the oven for one hour.

• To check if its ready, use a knife to poke it. If it comes out clean, you need to take it out of the oven. Let it cool, this will take a while so be patient, and invert it so the caramel is exposed. Just writing about it makes my mouth water!

Good luck and, don’t worry, Ana has made this flan many times and if she can do it, anyone can do it! In the meantime, I’ll just sign off by revealing that the only other ingredient I didn’t include in the recipe is: LOVE. You see, whenever we asked my Dad how come his dishes were so delicious, he would always answer: porque está hecho con amor.

¡Buen provecho! And, by the way, gracias Suegrita!!