Leche Flan Recipe by Nhick

Leche flan is a delightful dessert popular in the Philippines and, to me, it is Spain’s greatest contribution to my culture. I have always considered myself as a leche flan gorger but I never attempted to make it until the last holiday season, thanks to Google search and Youtube! However, I mistakenly used orange extract instead of vanilla but it turned out to be a much better leche flan recipe! Masarap na pagkakamali, as our friend, Tita Isabel, termed it so I feel proud to share my recipe with you!

Leche Flan Recipe Ingredients:

• 12 egg yolks (the lesser egg white spillage, the better)
• 350 ml whole milk (roughly about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 can condensed milk (14 oz)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp orange extract (vanilla can be used)

Caramel Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp water
• 1 cup brown sugar

Cooking Instructions:

1. Prepare 2 llaneras or any similar bakeable mould in the kitchen. A llanera  can be bought in any Filipino/Asian store and looks like this:
2. Prepare the caramel by bringing 3 tablespoons of water to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce the heat and stir in 1 cup of brown sugar for 2-3 minutes. Do not over cook otherwise the sugar becomes bitter. Pour and evenly spread the hot caramel into the llaneras. The containers almost immediately become hot so handle with care. Let the containers cool.
3. Prepare a steamer and let the water come to boil. I heard that one can use the oven by putting in a wide bake-able dish with about an inch of water. I only used a steamer so don’t quote me on the oven thing.
4. Combine the egg yolks, whole milk, condensed milk sugar and orange extract into a bowl and stir until everything is mixed thoroughly. Pour the mixture equally into the two llaneras and cover each one with foil.
5. Place the llaneras in the steamer and cook for 30 minutes or until firm:
6. Refrigerate the cooked flans and then go to the gym for two hours or browse more articles from my blog or listen to my music to offset caloric deficit before digging in.
7. To serve, run a knife along the edges of the llanera to loosen the flan. Turn each one over a plate and finish it off. Alternatively, you can just scoop the flan right out of the mold. Who cares!