Crème Caramel vs. Flan: How the Caramel Custard Dishes Differ

Crème caramel is a sweet custard dessert featuring a custard base and a layer of thin caramel sauce. The French dessert uses milk, eggs, and sugar as its main ingredients, while vanilla extract or vanilla beans provide the custard’s signature vanilla flavor. To make crème caramel, you bake it in individual ramekins in a deep baking dish filled halfway with boiling water (also known as a bain-marie or water bath).

In France, a crème caramel is a type of crème renversée—the French term “crème renversée” meaning “inverted” or “upside-down” because you turn the dish over after it finishes cooking to free it from its ramekin. The custard has a smooth texture, and the caramel layer on top is sweet and slightly sticky. Crème caramel differs from crème brûlée, a similar French dessert, in that chefs harden the caramelized sugar topping of crème brûlée with a blowtorch after the dessert finishes baking.

Flan refers to either a sweet baked custard dessert with a caramel top or a pastry shell containing custard and vegetables; the latter resembles a quiche. To serve the sweet version of flan, chefs invert the custard onto a serving plate, similar to how they would serve a crème caramel. To serve the savory pastry version, chefs cut the warm or room-temperature dish into wedges.

Flan originated as a Roman cuisine. In contemporary times, the definition of flan changes depending on the region. Mexican flan uses eggs, sweetened condensed milk, whole milk, cream, and sometimes cream cheese. Spanish flan is similar to Mexican flan but uses fewer ingredients. In the Philippines, leche flan cooks on the stovetop rather than in the oven; also, it’s firmer and eggier since it contains egg yolks instead of whole, large eggs.

While the desserts sweet flan and crème caramel are nearly the same dishes, there are still some differences between the two. Also, they both differ further from the savory pastry version of flan.

1. 1. Appearance: Both crème caramels and dessert flans use creamy custard bases and soft caramel toppings; however, compared to a crème caramel, a sweet flan has a shorter custard base and a larger diameter.
2. 2. Cooking method: Both crème caramels and sweet flans bake in a hot water bath, or bain-marie—a setup involving a deeper baking dish containing boiling water. In contrast, a savory flan bakes in a high-sided pie pan with no water bath until the pastry is golden and the custard is done.
3. 3. Flavor: Flan recipes usually call for multiple types of dairy products, such as cream cheese, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk. This gives a flan a tangier and sweeter flavor than that of a crème caramel, which uses only whole milk or cream, eggs, and sugar.
4. 4. Ingredients: A crème caramel uses ingredients that will enhance the dish’s sweetness, whereas a flan might be sweet or savory. Only a savory flan recipe will call for the addition of vegetables and savory herbs and spices to its egg custard.
5. 5. Serving options: Crème caramel and sweet flan are desserts, but you might enjoy a savory flan for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner.
6. 6. Texture: Both crème caramels and sweet flans have a smooth and creamy egg custard with a caramelized sugar syrup topping, whereas savory flans might contain vegetables, making them chewier.

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