Windows video (small)
mp4 video (small)
Go to the recipe for crème caramel
If you want a dessert that combines simplicity and wow factor, this has got to be it – crème caramel or flan, either vanilla or au café (the latter, “with coffee”, tends to be preferred in France).
Sure you’ve got to make caramel and custard. But neither could be easier. While a careful eye is needed to get the caramel just right, if you cut and run a bit early it will probably just mean that it’s a lighter colour.
And the custard is not your fraught stove-hovering kind, where you’ve got to heat and whisk over the burner for ages while engaging in some minor bacteriological warfare until the consistency and temperature hit their alchemy point. Nope, as far as custard goes this is really a straightforward heat-and-mix job.
So hold your nerve with that caramel … it will get darker, darker, as per the video. Tipping it into the ramekins quickly enough, and rolling it up the sides, is another moment when you need to be on the ball.
The only real problem we’ve struck is a bit of bubbling at the top of the cooked flans – probably caused by slight over-cooking, or aerated mixture rising to the top in the oven.
To avoid this, next time we’ll try letting the custard settle in the ramekins for a while before popping them into the water bath and oven, as well as keeping a closer eye on the cooking time.
You will need half a dozen suitable small round ramekins or similar containers that are oven-proof – see the video for different varieties, including leftover glassware containers from individual supermarket-bought oven desserts, such as chocolate pudding or crème brûlée.
The hardest bit is probably waiting the minimum 4-6 hours that they’ll need in the fridge before serving. Oh and it can be a bit tricky turning them out neatly.
But really, all these are trifling points. You shouldn’t have any serious problems if you watch the video and read the recipe. If you’re worried about impressing guests, do a practice batch for your own consumption. Or maybe two practice batches …
Once you’ve finished stuffing yourself with flan, make sure to let us know how it went.
- Waz
Crème caramel recipe (flan) – vanilla or au café
Makes about 6 depending on ramekin sizes.
Two separate measures of 3/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup water
5 large eggs
1/8 tspn salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups whole milk OR
2 cups whole milk + 2/3 cup full cream + 1/3 cup coffee
Preheat oven to 165C/325F.
Combine caster sugar and water in a small saucepan, preferably one with a thicker or encapsulated base. Place over medium-high heat and swirl the saucepan until sugar dissolves.
Get it bubbling until it clarifies – swirl aside any foam so you can see if the mixture underneath is clear.
Increase the heat to a rolling boil. Then place the lid on the saucepan for two minutes.
Remove lid and check colour. You want it quite dark, so be patient. Wait until bubbles start to rise up bronze-tinted, rather than clear, mixture is quite viscous and dark below the bubbles, and you’re getting the caramel smell quite strongly.
Remove from heat and quickly pour about a tablespoon of the caramel into first ramekin. Incline and rotate ramekin so the mixture runs about halfway up the sides, all the way round. DO NOT just tip the caramel in and leave it – because it won’t liquify and come out properly later.
Keep coating the ramekins, working quickly. If the caramel goes hard in the saucepan, try softening it over medium heat.
Once all ramekins are coated, start on your custard.
For vanilla crème caramel, pour 3 cups whole milk into a saucepan.
For crème caramel au café, combine 1/3 cup liquid coffee (strength to your liking – espresso, filter or instant) with 2/3 cup cream. Tip this into a saucepan with 2 cups whole milk.
Place saucepan over medium heat. Keep an eye on it as you do the next bit – once it starts to steam (not boil), take it off.
Crack 5 large eggs into clear mixing bowl. Gently whisk in your second 3/4 cup sugar until combined – don’t beat vigorously because you don’t want to make it frothy. Stir in vanilla and salt.
Once milk is steaming, pour it slowly into the egg-sugar mixture, gently whisking all the while. Going slow stops the eggs cooking and/or the mixture curdling.
Check it’s fully combined by looking at the bottom of your glass bowl and/or lifting the whisk vertically out of the mixture. If you get uncombined egg-sugar mixture, keep going.
Now fill your ramekins with the custard. The ramekins go into a water bath (use a large baking dish, hot water and a tea towel – see the video) and into the oven for 40-60 minutes. After 40 minutes wobble the tray to see if they’re still liquid or cooked.
Let cool, then refrigerate for 4-6 hours, a day, or a couple of days …
To turn them out, dunk each ramekin for a few minutes into shallow hot water. Then run a knife around the inside of the ramekin to detach the pudding. Invert ramekin on to the serving plate, jiggle and tap the ramekin, and the pudding should pop out, with a pleasing gush of delicious caramel over the top.
If you have trouble popping your puddings out, you might need to re-insert the knife in one spot, then angle it slightly to let air in as you invert the ramekin.
Sit down, enjoy and try to resist having a second one.
How to make Kung Pao Chicken
How to cook with truffles
Let the jelly roll: Swiss roll recipe from Waz’s Nana
How to roast a duck, the slow and tender way
Our roast chicken recipe: hot and fast
No-fuss fish pie
Classic bolognese
Portuguese custard tarts recipe (pasteis de nata)
About the soufflé
One chicken, three ways
We did it all for the gnocchi!
Ready, steady, spaghetti: Puttanesca pronto
Cinnamon teacake
Earth to Pilaf! Earth to Pilaf!
Pudding it simply
I’ve never really liked flan, and I don’t know why! Still, I wish I liked it. It always looks like something I should enjoy.
Thanks for the video!
Yum! That looks gorgeous guys. Thanks for another impressive dish!
This reminds me of the creme brulee, except cooked perfectly.
p.s Cool t-shirts Waz!
Thank God you guys made another video! That is, well, new.
Well, as always, I loved this video!
Please make more videos, you guys!
great job!
I’m with Waz on the clear dish, way cooler
Great video — been looking forward to a new one. You guys should come to Macau, as well as your favourite egg tarts, creme caramel is on just about every menu — another legacy of the Portuguese era. it is so populare that it is simply called “Pudim”.
Cheers!
Liz
yum. Never actually made one from scratch. Time to try !
My ‘handy tip’ would be to line each ramekin with a circle of cling film lightly wetted on the ramekin side, and pour the custard and caramel into that.
It can give a slightly wrinkly skin surface to the sides of the flan, but you can tell people it’s a deliberate effect
JohnnyFox, what happens to the cling film in the oven? Doesn’t it melt, burn or at the least impart a plasticky yukness to the pudding?
I tried this just today, but it did take forever to cook. And the caramel did smell… A bit.. Weird for me. Anyways. Thanks for the video guys.
Come on guys. Put out more episodes. I can’t wait a month and a half in between
great tasty delicious, please come over to my place and let me taste…and thank you for wearing my shirt – so great – and thank you for changing it – 24hours later
)))))))))))
Ok now its been over two months I love your podcast I want more
All your fans need a new episode!!! New one, please????
Thats right Celine
i just watched like 2/3 of the whole podcast collection. i enjoyed it and find it worth my time. thought the constant talk over each other did get to me at times. reckon it might be due to me watching like several episodes in a row. but keep it up! not the talk over each other but the vid podcast. (:
Your oven is too hot mate… that’s why your getting bubbling… keep your oven under 100 and be patient, you’ll get a much more gentle custard if the proteins slowly combine.
Also fewer eggs the better… 5 eggs will definately set your custard but will also give you a bullet. The minimum needed to set a custard is 1 egg for 250ml (about 1 cup) or 3 egg yolks… I prefer the yolks, as this (although still a little slower to set) will give you a much silkier, richer custard (therefore no need for cream).
Don’t mean to tell you guys you’re doing it wrong, but try adding some patience into this and you’ll get a beautiful texture.
hey!!i just baked the creme caramels and after baking in the oven, i put a knife through the dish to check if they are done or not; my knife doesn’t come out clean even after baking for 1 hour =(
oh and i used egg replacer instead or eggs… =S
i dont know waht i did wrong!!!! does the dish set in fridge? o.O
Hi Ishi, you don’t put a knife into them – to test bake according to the recipe and do the ‘wobble test’. And yes, they need to be refrigerated after cooked and cooled – for 4-6 hours, or even a few days.
Darn why didn’t I just read this instead? I just made mine’s last night and this morning my one was flat (so I over-cooked it then I suppose).
Also the caramel was frozen. I forgot to put it on shallow hot water so not all the caramel was pour out.
Thank very much for this. I will definitely be following this in the future