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Flan de queso (cheese flan)
Serves 8-12 Desserts and puddings
Ingredients
- 150g caster sugar
- 250g cream cheese, at room temperature
- 340ml evaporated milk
- 400ml condensed milk
- 5 eggs, at room temperature
- seeds scraped from ½ vanilla bean, or ½tsp vanilla bean paste
- ½tsp ground cinnamon
- ½tsp salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/ 140C F/Gas 4. Have ready a 24cm Pyrex pie dish on a flat, secure surface. Find a roasting tin that it fits inside (to create a bain-marie) and have your oven gloves to hand.
Put the sugar and 80ml water in a heavy-based pan set over a medium-high heat. Bring to the boil and cook the sugar until it starts to change colour. Reduce the heat to medium-low and keep cooking for 10-15 minutes until the sugar is light brown to brown, taking care not to burn yourself as the sugar will be about 180C. Stay vigilant, so the sugar does not burn. When it starts smoking, it’s ready.
Quickly pour the caramel into the dish and, with oven gloves on, distribute it over the bottom and two-thirds of the way up the side. The caramel will dissolve into syrup when the flan is ready and will make unmoulding easy. Set the mould aside.
Boil 1.5 litres water in a kettle. Add all the remaining ingredients to a blender and blend on the lowest speed for 1 minute until the mixture is smooth but not too frothy. Pour it into the mould and cover with foil. Put the mould in the roasting tin and put the tin with the dish inside on a middle shelf in the oven. Pour the hot water into the tin until it reaches two-thirds of the way up the outside of the dish. Cook for 1 hour.
With the oven gloves on, take the tin filled with water and the Pyrex dish out of the oven and check if the flan is cooked. Jiggle the dish softly – it should be wobbly. If the middle is still runny, return to the oven for another 10 minutes.
Take the dish out of the tin and transfer to a wire rack to cool – the flan will be very fragile at this stage. When cool, run a paring knife around the edge of the flan, to make unmoulding easier later, then transfer the dish to the fridge.
Place a plate that is larger than the dish, preferably with a raised edge, upside-down on top of it. Holding both the plate and dish very securely, flip them both the other way up, so the flan lands on the plate. (Protect your clothes at this stage as it may splash.) Transfer the syrup from the mould to a little jug.
With a long, thin knife, cut the flan into slices, cleaning the knife between cuts to keep it neat. Serve each slice with a drizzle of the syrup.