🍮 Mexican Flan
Mexican flan is a baked custard of milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla crowned with a layer of dark caramel. Mexican cooks often use generous vanilla, giving it a fragrant, rounded flavour, and the texture is smooth and silky. It is served chilled in slices at family gatherings, taquerías and bakeries across the country.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 750 ml milk
- 5 eggs
- 150 g sugar (for the custard)
- 120 g sugar (for the caramel)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp water
Method
- Make a caramel from 120 g sugar and the water and pour it into a round mould.
- Warm the milk with 150 g sugar until dissolved, then cool slightly.
- Whisk the eggs with the vanilla and stir in the milk.
- Strain over the caramel and cover the mould with foil.
- Bake in a water bath at 170 °C for 50–60 minutes until set.
- Cool, refrigerate overnight and turn out onto a deep plate.
How to make it lighter
- Reduce the sugar in the custard by a third; the caramel still gives plenty of sweetness.
- Use semi-skimmed milk for a lighter custard.
- Keep the slice to about 100–120 g and enjoy it slowly.
History
Flan arrived in Mexico with Spanish colonists, and over time it absorbed local touches such as Mexican vanilla. It is now one of the country's best-known desserts and a fixture of celebrations.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →