A French Flan is a Vanilla-flavored Crème caramel pudding, and it is prepared from start to finish with common pantry ingredients.
I am not a sweet tooth, but a homemade custard is my ultimate weakness, and so I perfected an easy to prepare flan, and you can do this too!
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Oven Info
The recipe is based on what we were taught in culinary school in Europe. Therefore, for my American friends I have tested the recipe thoroughly, adjusted and added US customary measurements.
The problem is the fact that American ovens and European ovens work so very differently.
After retesting this recipe a couple of times over the last months, I came to the conclusion that you should be making this recipe in a convection oven only (the standard fan heat in European ovens) because the heat gets evenly distributed.
If you still want to make this flan in a regular US oven, where the heat source is at the bottom only, I recommend increasing the baking time a fair amount more.
Not every oven is built the same way, and therefore you will have to test and adjust the baking time.
Baking a flan with the heat source at the bottom can take 20–30 minutes longer than baking it in the convection oven. The same can be applied to baking with the “top-down” oven heat setting.
Ingredients
You will need a handful of ingredients to make this fantastic creamy flan dessert from scratch. See the full recipe further below, fort details US and metric measurements.
- Milk
- Vanilla — A whole vanilla bean to infuse the milk OR vanilla bean paste OR vanilla extract. Either one works, I, personally, prefer an entire real vanilla bean for flavor.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk — Turns out creamier, and it's the better option than plain sugar.
- Eggs and Egg Yolk — The base of every good french flan! Keeps the flan together, creates the texture that we are looking for, and adds the egg taste that we love.
- Powdered Sugar + Water — To create a simple liquid caramel, which will be the base of your flan.
How to make it?
Step 1
Place your ramekins into an oven tray filled with some water. This is your water bath, which will cook your flan evenly.
Step 2
If you use vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste, infuse milk with vanilla over a lower heat setting. (you can skip this step if you use vanilla extract)
Let the milk cool.
Step 3
Heat sugar with water in a pan and melt it all. Wait a minute or two for it to darken and pour into ramekins quickly, as it hardens fast.
(careful, hot sugar burns!)
Step 4
Combine and whisk together eggs, egg yolks and condensed milk. Mix in cooled vanilla infused milk.
Pour the mixture into your ramekins.
Step 5
Bake your crème caramel flan until golden and cooked through.
📖 Recipe
French Crème Caramel Flan Recipe
Ingredients
For the Flan Custard:
- 2 Cups Milk
- 1 Vanilla Bean
- 1 ¼ Cup Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 2 Eggs
- 2 Egg Yolks
For the Caramel:
- 2 ½ Tablespoons Powdered Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Lukewarm Water
Instructions
- Before you start with your cooking, prepare a water bath (Bain Marie) by placing the ramekins into a bottom flat baking pan. Pour water around the ramekins into the baking pan.
- If you use vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste (skip this step if you use vanilla extract) pour milk into a pan. Slit lengthwise your vanilla bean and collect the small black seeds with a spoon. Add the seeds and empty vanilla bean to the milk and heat up for a short time. The vanilla flavor will infuse the milk while it's simmering. After 3 minutes or so, it is hot enough, remove from the heat and let the vanilla bean steep in the milk for a few minutes. Never boil and don't allow the milk to grow a skin on top or the vanilla seeds might get stuck in the skin. Discard the empty vanilla bean. The vanilla infused milk needs to cool down a bit.2 Cups Milk, 1 Vanilla Bean
- Preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit/ 180 Celsius!
- Now prepare the Caramel by placing half amount of the powdered sugar into the pot with the 2 Tablespoons of Water. Keep it on a very low flame, it has to heat gradually and make sure there are no lumps. Slowly you will notice that the sugar is melting and at that point you add the remaining sugar. Take care that you don't burn your caramel. Believe me, it happens rapidly, so when you see the sugar melted and slowly turning into a yellow golden, stir well. A few seconds later, it will turn brown and at that point you can take it away from the heat.2 ½ Tablespoons Powdered Sugar, 2 Tablespoons Lukewarm Water
- Add to a mixing bowl the condensed milk, 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks and whisk well.1 ¼ Cup Sweetened Condensed Milk, 2 Eggs, 2 Egg Yolks
- Pour the cooled down vanilla milk into the egg condensed milk mixture and whisk heavily so that all ingredients are well incorporated. You should do that quickly because you don't want any egg lumps to form with the hot milk.If you use vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste, add a few drops of vanilla with the milk to the egg mixture.
- Then pour the mixture over the caramel into the ramekins and place the water bath and ramekins into the oven and bake at 350° Fahrenheit/ 180° Celsius for about 18–25 minutes or until the top has turned golden brown. You can check too if it's cooked in the center by poking with a knife, if the knife comes back clean, it is ready. Otherwise, the flan might take more time in the oven to bake properly. Repeat the test, until the flan is cooked.
- Serve in the Ramekin or turn over into a plate. I prefer the flan cold, so you can keep them in the fridge to cool before serving or serve them still warm (but cooled down).
Notes
Equipment
Nutrition
Serving Ideas
The flan can be served by itself, either refrigerator cooled or at room temperature in the ramekins or turned out on a plate.
You can add fresh fruits to that, just as I did with the Bavarian Cream dessert. Raspberry, figs, and blueberries are just some fruit ideas.
Storing
The baked flan can be left for up to 2–3 days in the refrigerator. It needs to be cooled at all time, so I don't recommend making these for a tailgating or potluck event.
Some ramekins come with covers, and they can be covered that way in the fridge or use a cling film to cover.
More French Dessert Ideas
- Apple Cake with Calvados (French apple alcohol)
- Blueberry Tart with Custard (a French open pie)
- Clafoutis — Flan-like dessert with fresh full cherries.
