Ingredients: |
Ingredients: Caramel Sauce Ingredients:
2 tablespoons water
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
1 stick of butter
1 cup half & half
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Flan Custard Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (⅓ less fat variety works fine)
5 eggs
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk (skim works fine)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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Directions: |
Directions:Caramel Sauce Directions:
In a heavy 3 or 4 quart sauce pan, on medium heat, add the water to the pan until it gets hot. Then add the brown sugar and stir with a flat wooden spoon constantly until the sugar crystals have disappeared and the sugar is melted. Quickly add the butter and whisk it into the sugar until it is melted and mixed thoroughly. Take the mixture off the heat, and after about five seconds, start to slowly add the half & half, mixing constantly, until all of it is added and the mixture is smooth. Likewise, add and mix in the vanilla. In a round cake pan (preferably with a pop-out bottom that will not leak) pour the caramel mixture into the bottom of the pan and let it cool for about ten minutes, occasionally swirling it so that the caramel gets around the sides.
Custard Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350º Fahrenheit.
In a large mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until it is smooth. Add the eggs one at a time beating thoroughly until smooth. Add the sweetened condensed milk, the evaporated milk, and the vanilla extract. Beat until homogeneous. Ladle or pour mixture into the cake pan (on top of the cooled caramel sauce). Do not be concerned if the caramel sauce seems to mix with the custard a little.
Find a roasting pan, or any oven-safe pan of larger diameter than the cake pan, and dampen a kitchen towel and place it flat on the bottom of the roasting pan. Place the cake pan on the damp towel that is in the roasting pan, and fill the roasting pan with boiling or hot water so that the cake pan containing the flan is sitting in a water bath. Bake the flan at 350º F. for about an hour and ten minutes, or until the center is clearly set and the flan acts like firm jello when you shake the pan around a little. Check regularly to replenish the water bath if necessary.
Let the flan cool on a wire rack for an hour (if your pan is the kind where the bottom pops out, be careful that the rack you set it on is wide enough that it won't pop the bottom out of the pan!). Then, refrigerate the flan for at least eight hours, or overnight. It will settle quite a bit in the fridge, becoming shorter. Be very careful inverting it out of the pan, because the caramel, though still mostly liquid when refrigerated, will try diligently to stick to the bottom of the pan. Even so, you can scrape the sauce out and replace it on top of the flan if necessary. Enjoy! |
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