A popular dish throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as other regions influenced by Spanish cuisine, flan is the ultimate simple but showy dessert. The creamy custard hides a layer of rich caramel that, when flipped out of the pan, reveals itself to be an amber sauce that spreads to the edges of whatever party platter you’ve transferred it to. Instant applause.
Some versions have a tendency to collapse on the serving plate. This homemade flan recipe incorporates a bit of cream cheese, which adds tangy flavor and imparts just enough structure to make unmolding a breeze. It also uses a vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract—if you’re ever going to splurge, a custard dessert is the time to do it. Custards bake to a lower internal temperature than cakes and cookies, which means all the nuances present in those tiny vanilla seeds make a difference. Finally, the caramel sauce is cooked to a dark amber—a shade darker than usual. The slightly bitter tinge contrasts beautifully with the eggy custard mixture.
This flan gets baked in a loaf pan instead of the more common pie plate or cake pan. This does two things: The higher sides mean that the water bath it’s baked in is less likely to slosh into the tin, and it also unmolds easily into an attractive loaf that can be cut into neat slices. Look for the top of the flan to jiggle slightly when you (gently) jostle the baking pan.
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What you’ll need
Loaf Pan
$19 At Amazon
Electric Mixer
$40 At Amazon
Scale
$26 At Amazon
Ingredients
6–8 servings
Caramel
1
1
Custard and Assembly
8
½
4
3
2
1
1
1
Preparation
Caramel
Step 1
Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 350°. Set a 9x5" loaf pan inside a 13x9" baking dish. Bring 1 cup (200 g) sugar, 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup, and 3 Tbsp. water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan occasionally (do not stir). Cook until caramel is dark amber, about 4 minutes. Carefully pour into loaf pan and let sit until set, about 10 minutes.
Custard and assembly
Step 2
Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature, and ½ cup (100 g) sugar in a medium bowl until combined. Beat in 4 large egg yolks and 3 large eggs; scrape down sides of bowl. Scrape in vanilla seeds from 2 vanilla beans; reserve pods for another use. Reduce mixer speed to low, add one 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk, one 12-oz. can evaporated milk, and 1 cup whole milk, and beat until custard is smooth, about 1 minute.
Step 3
Pour custard into loaf pan. Pour water into baking dish to come ¾" up sides of loaf pan. Bake flan until pale golden on top and just set in the center but still a little wobbly when jiggled, about 1½ hours. Remove loaf pan from baking dish and transfer to a wire rack. Let flan cool in pan 15 minutes, then chill at least 3 hours and, preferably, up to 12 hours.
Step 4
Just before serving, run a small knife around edges of flan. Set a platter on top of loaf pan and carefully invert flan onto platter.
Leave a Review
Reviews (3)
Back to TopI have made this recipe twice now and it was a smash hit both times. It's easy to assemble, easy to bake, and it flipped out of the loaf pan like charm. Deliciously creamy! I substituted the 2 vanilla beans and used 1Tablespoon of vanilla bean paste, and that worked really well. I would have given this recipe five stars, but the instructions surrounding the making of the caramel sauce are confusing/incorrect. Like the other comments I've seen, I cooked it for much longer than 4 minutes - probably around 10 minutes (and it still wasn't dark amber). It also left a thin layer of hardened sugar in the bottom of the loaf pan after I flipped it out, but it didn't impact the flan, and easily scrubbed out with soap and hot water. Other than that - this is a fantastic recipe!
Jenny
Rochester, NY
11/15/2023
My first time making anything like this but it turned out really well! Like some others, my first attempt at the caramel was a bit of a fail. The sugar didn't brown until after a good 10-15 minutes and after it had settled into the loaf tin I was using, it had turned rock solid. After chucking the sugar rock in the compost, I decided to use my own smarts and simply melted the sugar first, waited until it had reached a colour I was happy with and when it had cooled down a little, I poured water into it until it had a thick, syrup-y consistency. Following the rest of the recipe was all smooth sailing. Because I couldn't find evaporated milk and had to use 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk instead, I was really happy that I had browned my caramel quite a lot (read: until dark brown, not golden) since it balanced the sweetness of the flan.
Jenny
Stockholm, Sweden
8/18/2023
Good ‘taste .’ Yes, had to cook caramel longer than 4 minutes. But the cheesecake part is weird - just keep cheesecake cheesecake and flan flan. Just kinda mad I made it knowing that would be the outcome.
DZ
Evanston
6/26/2023
Good lord was this delicious. Part flan-part cheesecake (though more flan than cheesecake; just sturdier). The taste was amazing -- creamy and vanilla-y. As with other reviewers, it took quite a bit of time for my sugar mixture to turn dark amber on my stove, but it finally did and the taste was just right. I refrigerated overnight for a dinner party the next night. I didn't think my loaf pan would ever come clean, but an overnight soak did the trick.
PrincessDi
Berkeley, CA
2/26/2023
this flan was awesome! i successfully made the caramel after burning it the first time, and when it settled and started cracking in the loaf pan i kinda freaked out a bit - but the flan was actually perfect after baking and chilling in the fridge for a few hours. the caramel dripped down all over once i inverted it on to a dish. like another commenter below, the caramel took much longer than 4 minutes on the stove. i'll definitely make this again whenever the flan craving hits
alyssa
west long branch, nj
1/3/2023
This was so easy but tasted like it came from a fancy restaurant! Mmm vanilla bean, mmm caramel, so creamy and smooth. A beautiful custard. Everyone loved it!
Carrie
Tacoma, WA
12/26/2022
This recipe is fantastic. There was a hard layer of caramel in the bottom of my pan but it dissolved with boiling water when we did the dishes. Plenty of caramel spilled out and poured over the sides like it was supposed to. The texture is so creamy and nice and there’s no tempering or whatever. So good!
Jenm
12/26/2022
I followed the instructions to the tee and like others was left with a caramel rock on the bottom of the pan , it makes no sense to make caramel , bake it for 1.5 hours , than refrigerate it for 12 hours and not expect a solid candy rock at the end . What a mess than recipe makes ….Something wrong here.
Chris
Toronto Canada
12/25/2022
Texture seems a bit too creamy. Also, my caramel didn’t turn amber in the four minutes. I kept it on the stove for longer trying to achieve the color- so what I ended up with was a layer of hard candy in the bottom of the loaf pan and very little sauce. Rookie mistake no doubt.
Anonymous
Oregon
12/2/2022