Flan is eaten everywhere. There are a million variations, and every country has its own twist on the basic recipe. In Puerto Rico, flan is made with four basic ingredients: eggs (lots of them), evaporated milk, condensed milk (amazing!), and caramel, to which you can add pumpkin, vanilla, cream cheese…. It is sweet, smooth, silky, and decadently creamy.

Making flan is similar to making cheesecake. You blend the ingredients, pour them into a pan, bake for an hour in bain marie, and refrigerate overnight. The difference is in the caramel. With a little patience, caramel is easy to make. 

Having made both wet and dry caramel, I must confess I prefer making dry caramel; it is less unpredictable and develops a richer, nuttier flavor. I added cardamom and Ginger to the caramel, just for experimentations sake. The combination is amazing. A little spice from the ginger and aromatics from the cardamom make this recipe a knockout. Classic, with a twist.

And here is when it gets difficult. For the flan to develop the right texture, it needs to rest in the refrigerator overnight. The final product is irresistible. So as tempted as you might be to take a bite, don’t.

Ginger Cardamom Cheese Flan

Serves 10-12

• Ginger Cardamom Caramel
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 tbsp. ground cardamom

Put a clean, dry saucepan over a burner at medium to medium-low temperature. Once the saucepan warms up, pour sugar, ginger, and cardamom. The sugar should start melting at the bottom first. (It takes several minutes before anything starts happening, so I suggest being patient rather than turning the burner to high. Burnt caramel is not tasty.) Once the sugar starts to melt, mix gently. You want the sugar to develop an medium dark amber color. There might be a couple of stubborn pieces of sugar that wont melt; you can scoop those out later. If you over mix the sugar, it will become lumpy. Lower the heat, and let sugar melt into liquid. Once the caramel is totally liquid, pour into the cake pan where you plan to bake the flan. I used an 8 inch pan 2 inches deep. Cover the entire bottom of the pan with the caramel. This needs to be done quickly, to prevent the caramel from hardening.  Set aside.

Flan

• 7 eggs
• 1 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 12 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 14 oz. can evaporated milk
• ½ cup white sugar 

For the bain marie you need a deep baking sheet, where you will place your cake pan into. Make sure it is large enough to fits the cake pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a pot pour approximately 8 cups of water and simmer until just boiling. Depending on the size of the baking sheet you might need to simmer more or less water.

In a food processor or blender, incorporate cream cheese, eggs (one at a time), condensed milk, evaporated milk, and sugar. Blend until smooth. Pour into the cake pan over the caramel. Completely cover in tin foil, and place in the baking sheet. Place in oven, and pout hot water into baking sheet, ensuring that water doesn’t get into the custard. Water should reach halfway up the cake pan. Bake for an hour. To check if flan is ready, insert a wet knife into center of custard. It should come out clean. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or over night.