christmas flan

I decided to make a flan for Christmas lunch this year; it's similar to the familiar creme caramel, only it contains cinnamon and is called a flan in South America. It takes about an hour to bake, and needs around 24hours to set completely in the fridge; so if you're planning to make this dessert, please remember to make it a day in advance!

The recipe below is for a rich, creamy flan; but those of you who are weight conscious, you can replace the evaporated milk with regular (not skimmed though!) milk, the resulting flan will be slightly lighter, but still delicious!

Serves 6

FOR THE CARAMEL

175g/6oz sugar

3 tbsp water

FOR THE CUSTARD

5 eggs

45g/1.5oz sugar

600ml/1 pint evaporated milk

3 tbsp double cream

a few drops of vanilla extract

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150 ºC. Prepare a 18cm/7inch deep round cake tin by putting it in the fridge while you make the caramel. Put the sugar into a saucepan with the water and mix together. Heat on a medium flame, until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, increase the heat, and without further stirring, until the sugar turns a golden brown (I suggest using a light-coloured pan because it's difficult to gauge the colour change in a non-stick pan!)
2. Take the cake tin out of the fridge and quickly pour the caramel into the tin. Tip the pan from side to side so the caramel coats the base and a little way up the sides of the tin. Set the tin aside and go onto making the custard.
3. Whisk the eggs together lightly with the sugar, then whisk in the milk and cream. Try not to incorporate too many air bubbles because over-whisking will result in a spongy flan.
4. Strain the mixture (pass through a fine sieve, this gets rid of the stringy white bits from the egg), and then add the vanilla, allspice and cinnamon and pour over the caramel.
5. Place the tin in a bain marie (water bath), and cover with foil. Cook in the oven for about 1 to 1½ hours, or until a nudge on the side of the tin causes a gentle wobble (like jello).
6. Remove from the water bath, and leave to cool for about an hour before chilling it in the fridge.

To get the flan out of the cake tin, dip the bottom briefly in hot water, let it rest for a minute, then shake gently to loosen and invert onto a serving dish. Make sure the dish isn't too flat... you want the caramel to flow AROUND the custard and not onto the kitchen counter!