Classic Flan Recipe: 3 Tips for Making the Best Flan

Flan is a creamy custard dessert made with milk, eggs, sugar, occasionally flavored with vanilla, and topped with caramel sauce. Also known as crème caramel, the sweet custard is gently cooked inside a loose caramel base (unlike its crème brûlée counterpart, which features a hard, crystallized caramel layer on top). Upon serving, the baker inverts the dish onto a plate, and the caramel drips down the sides of the set custard, creating a visually appealing dessert for celebrations, holidays, or a special weekend treat.

If necessity is the mother of invention, one could argue that a surplus of eggs from newly domesticated chickens in the Roman era willed the modern flan into existence.

• The savory dish gets the sweet treatment in Rome. Early custard dishes, made from a basic combination of cooked eggs and cream, were more often savory than sweet—until flado, a popular version made with honey, became the de-facto format in Ancient Rome.
• The Spanish introduce caramel. The Spanish are credited with introducing caramel to the dish. When the Spaniards arrived in the Americas, a soft spot for flan came with them, becoming a beloved staple wherever it went, eventually inspiring many regional variations throughout Latin America.
• Latin-American variations. Some recipes call for cream cheese (like Mexican flan de queso, or flan napolitano), some feature a bottom layer of sponge cake (like Puerto Rican flancocho), and others highlight a range of flavors like citrus, coconut milk, passion fruit, liqueurs, or spices, as seen in Portuguese-style pudim flan.

Here are some essential tips for bakers preparing to make their own flan:

1. Choose the Right Vessel.

If it’s your first time making flan, using small ramekins will make it much easier to evenly cook and invert the sweet dessert onto a serving dish. Using a larger baking pan like a loaf pan or cake pan makes for a striking presentation but requires more attention to cooking time and care when inverting onto a plate, as the custard may split under its own weight.

2. Use a Water Bath.

Like a cheesecake, you must cook flan in a water bath, or bain-marie. A water bath involves setting the flan ramekin in boiling water, ensuring a gentle, even heat distribution. To make a bain-marie at home, set the flans in a deep roasting pan or baking dish. Fill the pan with hot water halfway up the ramekins or pan and place it in the oven.

3. Keep It Smooth.

For a little extra finesse, eliminate bubbles in the finished flan by passing the custard mixture through a sieve before baking.