Devour Spain, you say? Certainly!
This evening I’m heading to a “Devour Spain” party to watch the next World Cup match, Spain vs. Germany.
Naturally, I’ll be cheering for my current country of residence.
Even if Germany doesn’t devour Spain on the football pitch, my friends and I are certain to devour Spanish food.
My contribution?
Dessert.
Because it’s FLANtastic!
Making flan is a first for me so I turned to a wonderful step-by-step recipe guide from this website.
Flan
Ingredients
For the caramelized coating
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
For the flan
- 4 cups whole milk
- 2 strips lemon zest
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 5 whole eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 cup granulated sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 300ºF.
To prepare the caramelized sugar coating, spread the sugar evenly in the bottom of a heavy saucepan and place over medium-low heat.
After several minutes, the sugar begins to melt.
Without stirring, watch the sugar closely as it begins to liquefy at the edges.
All of it will slowly turn first into a yellowish syrup
and then golden syrup
and finally into a brown caramel sauce.
When the liquefied sugar is turning from golden to brown, immediately remove the saucepan from the heat.
Quickly pour the liquid caramel into into a large ceramic container or 12 custard cups and tilt to cover the bottom and sides evenly.
It is important to do this transfer quickly, as the change in temperature causes the caramel to solidify rapidly.
Set aside.
In a saucepan, combine the milk, lemon zest, and cinnamon stick over high heat and bring to a boil.
Immediately decrease the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes to infuse the milk with the flavor of the seasonings.
Remove from the heat and let cool.
In a bowl, combine the whole eggs, egg yolks, and granulated sugar and whisk until foamy.
Pour the cooled milk through a fine-mesh sieve held over the egg mixture
Whisk until well blended
Pour the mixture into the caramel-coated container
Place in a large, deep baking pan .
Pull out the oven rack, put the baking pan on it, and pour boiling water to a depth of about 1 inch into the pan to create a water bath.
Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until set when tested with a thin-bladed knife in the center.
Carefully remove the water bath from the oven, and then carefully remove the custard from the water bath and set aside to cool completely.
You can cover and refrigerate the cooled custards and serve them cold, or you can serve them at room temperature.
Run the knife around the inside of each cup to loosen the edges of the custard and then invert the flan onto a dessert plate.
Several hours later, the lighting wasn’t the best and my finished photo was taken in a hurry…
… so please don’t let this last photo discourage you.
This flan is FLANtastic!
Unfortunately, Spain was so good…. they beat Germany, 1-0.
Very sad indeed. Almost as sad as my final flan photo looks.
Alright, I’m off to make final packing preparations. Tomorrow I leave for Berlin!!!
Eating Abroad
