A classic Spanish/Mexican dessert as made in a Filipino kitchen: Leche Flan

In the Philippines, cooks add coconut milk to flan, for extra creaminess and richness (but no coconut flavor). Recipe below.

WE MADE FLAN THE OTHER NIGHT, and as Marion said, it’s one of the easiest things we’ve ever cooked, having only five ingredients and about the same number of simple steps. It is also serve-it-to-company delicious—a creamy, luscious, silky custard topped with caramel.

While flan is primarily thought of as a Spanish or Mexican dessert, we made a Filipino version, leche flan, which includes coconut milk. The coconut milk doesn’t impart a coconut flavor, but just ups the decadent creaminess. We based our recipe on one in I Am a Filipino: And This Is How We Cook, a 2019 James Beard Awards Finalist cookbook by Miguel Trinidad and Nicole Ponseca. Expect to see more recipes from this excellent cookbook here; we’ve certainly found a number of things we want to try.

According to Food52, leche flan is traditionally steamed on the stovetop because ovens were uncommon in the Philippines for many years. Some recipes still call for steaming, but you can also use a water bath in the oven, which we did. Essentially, you put your pie plate or ramekins into a larger container—a roasting pan works well—and add boiling water to it about halfway up the sides of the cooking dishes, then place the whole thing in the oven. This method is used for making flan, crème brûlée and other custards, ensuring even, gentle heat as the food cooks and avoiding “scrambling” the eggs in it.

Regarding those ramekins, Filipino flans are traditionally baked in an oblong pan and sliced, or in individual molds, according to I Am a Filipino: And This Is How We Cook. But they say you can also use a round baking dish or pie pan. We used a deep 9-1/2-inch glass pie plate. More about that in the recipe.

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Leche Flan

In the Philippines, cooks add coconut milk to flan, for extra creaminess and richness (but no coconut flavor).

Course Dessert

Cuisine Philippine

Servings 8 slices

Equipment

• a deep 9-inch (or so) glass pie plate

Ingredients

• 5 large eggs
• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1-1/2 cups coconut milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350ºF.
• In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs, then gently stir in the condensed milk, coconut milk and vanilla, making sure they are thoroughly combined. Use a whisk or wooden spoon for this, not an electric mixer. Set aside.
• Put the sugar and a tablespoon of water into a medium saucepan. Melt the sugar over a medium flame, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon or spatula until it melts. It will start to brown or caramelize as it melts, and that’s okay. When it is completely melted and dark golden brown, carefully pour it into the bottom of your pie plate (this stuff is really hot, so do be careful). Gently swirl it around in the pie plate to evenly coat the bottom and the sides. Let it cool a moment to harden slightly.
• Pour the egg/milk mixture into the pie plate. Preferably strain it through a sieve, in case there are bits of anything that didn’t totally incorporate into the mixture. Place the pie plate into a roasting pan or large baking dish. Carefully pour boiling water into the roasting pan, avoiding splashing water into the flan dish, until it comes about halfway up the sides of the pie plate. If you don’t have enough boiling water, add hot tap water.
• Transfer the entire operation to the oven and bake for 45 to 55 minutes (topping up the water bath, if needed), until the center of the flan is set and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• Remove the pie plate from the water bath and cool on a rack. Then cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
• To serve, run a sharp knife around the edge and gently invert it on a large rimmed serving plate; we placed our serving plate face down over the pie plate, then turned everything together. (see Kitchen Notes about our unwarranted worries doing this). Slice into wedges and serve.

Kitchen Notes

Flipping the flan. As you probably noted (we certainly did), you do not butter or oil the pie plate before pouring in the caramelized sugar. We seriously worried about how it would release onto the serving plate. The answer was beautifully. Because we baked it in a glass pie plate, we actually watched the flan as it released in slow motion and settled onto the serving plate.

Keepability, durability. Refrigerated, the flan will keep 5 or 6 days. To store it, we sliced the flan into servings and put them into an airtight container whose lid did not touch the caramelized sugar. Also, those slices are nice and durable, easy to transfer to individual plates and such.

Cleanup is easier than we expected. Our big concern was the sugar-coated saucepan and utensils. A nice soak in hot, soapy water took care of it.

Liz’s Crockery Corner. Okay, no big history on this plate. We think we maybe saw it in an Anthropologie store several years ago, when people were putting birds on everything, and we liked it, so we bought it. And you gotta admit, the bird looks pretty cute peeking out from under the flan slice.