The best Mexican flan recipe uses high-quality ingredients, fresh eggs, homemade amber caramel sauce, and a precision cooking technique for an authentic sweet, creamy taste.
Set up the (ANOVA)ᴿᴱᴰ Precision Cooker. Fill a deep container or pot with water, insert the precision cooker and secure it to the wall of the container.
Ensure the water level meets the requirement. The precision cooker has one mark for minimum water and another for maximum.
Set the temperature to 179F or 82C, and the cooking time to 1 hour. The precision cooker will beep when reaching the desired temperature and change to a solid blue light.
Add the evaporated milk, the condensed milk, the eggs, and the vanilla extract to the blender.
Blend the ingredients on high. And set aside. If using a mixer or whisking by hand, the flan mixture has to be strained.
For the amber caramel
Use a double bottom pot and add the sugar and the water.
Cook the sugar mixture on the stovetop at medium heat without stirring.
Allow the sugar to melt until acquiring an amber color.
Remove the pot from the heat and temper using circular motions.
Preserve inside a mason jar and keep the caramel in a dark place.
Notes
The most common variations for Mexican flan include coffee, dulce de leche, chocolate, pumpkin, sweet potato, cinnamon, cream cheese, and coconut.
Coffee Flavor - Add one tablespoon of instant coffee or cocoa to the main flan recipe for a flan with coffee or chocolate flavor.
Dulce de Leche Flavor - Add 2 tablespoons of milk caramel to the classic flan recipe. And use dulce de leche syrup instead of the traditional amber caramel sauce to cover the bottom of the canning jars.
Pumpkin or Sweet Potato and Cream Cheese flavor - Use a piece of 4-ounce cream cheese, 1/2 cup of pumpkin or sweet potato puree, 12oz can of evaporated milk, 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 3 whole eggs, plus 2 egg yolks.
Coconut - Use Thai-style canned coconut milk instead of evaporated milk, replace the vanilla extract with coconut extract if desired, and use the same ingredients of the flan base recipe. Add toasted coconut for serving.