Flan (in Vietnamese style)

             Have you ever ate flan? If not, it is the most wonderful dessert you'd ever tasted. It's a light, soft and sweet custard covers with caramel that will melt in your mouth, you don't even have to chew it. You eat with shaved/crushed ice with a drizzle of coffee. This will be the best dessert you'll ever taste. There are TWO different techniques of how to cook the flan. One is by steaming it, two is by baking it. I like the steaming method more because it keeps the flan moister than baking method. However it took longer to cook. One more thing that will make this dessert the best is there isn't any bubbles inside the flan. The Flan supposed to be dense, thick yet light and soft , but NOT filled with bubbles like a beehive. I've seen so many flan tutorials, they might taste good; but if the flan is filled with tiny holes, no matter what it won't be a best flan. This is a recipe is handed down from my mother. My mother once had a dessert store in Vietnam, and everybody loved ordering flan that made by my mum very much so I know what works and what doesn't. SO TRUST ME and take a good note if you want to make a best flan ^^...

Now let's begin
Ingredients:
* For the caramel:

• 250g of sugar (about 1 cup) 
• 4-5 tablespoons of water

*For the Flan:

• 250g of sugar
• 800g of eggs = 12 medium eggs
• 500 mL of water
• 500 mL of milk

*For serving: 

• Some shaved ice, or crushed ice
• Good quality coffee like espresso. 

Now let's start cooking (boink boink!!!~~~)

Step 1: in a sauce pan, add sugar and water in. DO NOT STIR. Cook in medium high heat until the color turn to an amber color. You have to watch it carefully, do not go somewhere else. Important key when making caramel is you do not use a spoon to stir the mixture, or else it'll recrystallize the sugar, We want a nice , smooth , liquid mixture. It takes about 10 minutes. 

- After that, quickly pour the hot caramel into the molds (I used about 12 molds for this, depending how small or big your mold is). After that, quickly tilt the mold so all the caramel covers the bottom. Then leave them aside.

Step 2:  In a big bowl, add the sugar, crack all the eggs in, pour in all the milk and water. Use a whisk , whisk in ONE direction only, reduce making bubbles. DO NOT BEAT , only WHISK. Whisk the mixture until all the egg whites are almost gone, the less the better. (you don't a scramble egg as your dessert, do you? wink wink* ) 

* Continue whisking for15 minutes. 

 Step 3: In a strainer and with a clean bowl, pour the mixture and finely sift through, you want to limit all the egg whites that don't dissolve and still a big clump as much as possibles. After that, pour the mixture that has been sifted into all the molds. You should finely sift it, or else when you pour to the molds, big egg white chunks will flow on top of the surface.

Step 4:

• If you have a steamer pot, follow these steps:

- * Pour tap water in the steamer pot halfway, and boil it. If you have 3 levels of steamer pot with 2 trays, that's great. Carefully place all the molds onto the trays. Once the water is boiled, reduce the heat to low. It should be low, if it's too lot, you will have scramble egg, not FLAN ^^ ..

- * So very careful, turn the heat to low and place all the trays on top and cover the lid. EVERY 15 minutes, open the lid and carefully tilt the lid off the tray, do not let the vapor water drop down to the molds, or else the flan will be "liquidy" and hard to cook. Then put the lid back on. 

- * Repeat the steps about 1 hour. After that, take a toothpick, poke into the flan. If the toothpick comes out clean, then it's done . If it's still wet, continue to cook until it comes out clean. 

• If you don't have steamer pot, and want to bake it, then follow these steps:
• You have to cook it in a water bath.

- * Turn on your oven to 350F

- * Place all the molds in a roasting pan that's about 2 inches high. 

- * Pour in some hot water half way of the molds. 

- * Place a aluminum foil on top to cover all the molds, prevent the surface from drying out while baking

- * Bake them for 35 minutes or until you insert a toothpick in and it comes out clean. 

After cooking them by steaming or baking, let them cool to the room temperature. Then put them in the refrigerator to chill for couple hours.  

And NOW IT"S DONE ^^

-----When serving: use a small paring knife, run around the edge of the mold and tilt it upside down to the plate. The caramel face will be on top and dripping down on the plate. Serve it like that if you like. Or if feeling fancy, add a few  crushed/shaved ice, drizzle on top tiny bit of espresso to have coffee taste. (I don't have espresso, so 2 tsp of instant coffee powder with 1 tsp of water works fine also ^^ ). 

---> There you have it, a good cold FLAN cake floating on caramel sauce with a kick of coffee flavor. The inside is smooth, dense , without looking like a beehive. Trust me, you won't ever want to go back to pudding package anymore ^^. 

Good luck and ask me any questions , I love to answer them for you ^^!!! 

- mobilemushroom-