Flan

Recently, my husband and I had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants. One of the best things about this restaurant is that it serves one of my all-time favorite desserts. Creme Brulee.

It was rich and smooth, but not too sweet, just the way a traditional Crème Brulee should be.

Of course, when I got home, I wanted more, except I've never made Crème Brulee before. However, there is something I have made that's very similar and I love almost as much. Flan.

Growing up, custard was one of my favorite desserts. Then I moved to Texas and was introduced to flan. For me, it was a new and improved version of custard with a caramel coating. Then along came crème brulee. I don't remember when or where, just that it was love at first bite. And don't try to get all frou-frou on me by trying to "improve" upon traditional crème brulee by adding mango or whatever other flavors you might think. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Crème brulee is perfect as is. 'Nuf said.

Now back to that flan. It's creamy like a crème brulee, but with a  slightly different texture. It's not difficult to make, however you do need to plan ahead. 

Your ingredients are:

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (think Eagle Brand)
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Sprinkle the sugar in a large heavy skillet or saucepan. Add NOTHING else. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until sugar melts and turns light brown. So that you won't be intimidated or wondering if you're doing it right, here's a series of pics on this progression.

 

 

 

Be careful not to overcook it, though, or it will have a burned taste. 

Once all of the sugar, quickly pour hot caramel into a lightly oiled 9-inch round cakepan, tilting to coat bottom evenly, then set aside. (Caramel syrup will harden and may crack, but that's okay.)

In a large mixing bowl, lightly beat eggs, then add remaining three ingredients. Whisk until mixed. Pour custard mixture over syrup in cakepan.

Cover pan with foil and place in a large shallow pan. Add hot water to pan to depth of 1 inch. I added the water after setting the sheet on the baking rack in the oven.

Bake at 325 for 50 minutes or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Don't worry if it still jiggles as though it's still liquidy. As long as the knife comes out clean, you're safe.

Remove pan from water bath, and uncover; cool completely on a wire rack.

After it has cooled, cover again and chill at least 8 hours.

Loosen edges of flan with a spatula.

And invert (quickly) onto a rimmed serving plate, allowing the melted caramel to drizzle over top. I set my plate over the pan, then flipped.

Now, if you think you're seeing some different pictures/kitchens here, you are. I forgot about the 8 hours of chilling, so the finished product was not ready when I was typing this post, so I had to reach back into the archives. That does not detract, however, from the fact that this flan is AMAZING! And I can't wait for this most recent one to come out of the pan so I can dig in.

Do you have a favorite dish/dessert that takes on different forms and you love them all?

Three time Carol Award finalist Mindy Obenhaus is passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. She lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, one sassy pup, countless cattle, deer and the occasional coyote, mountain lion or snake. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, cooking and watching copious amounts of the Hallmark Channel. Learn more a mindyobenhaus.com.

Springtime Gourmet Lavender Flan

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I've got a super fun recipe for you. But first... KITTENS.

 A friend of mine rescued a batch of abandoned kittens. This meant getting kitten replacement milk from the vet. (It actually came in a little pop top can. Hilarious.)

 (My friend Lili took this picture of one of her own cats investigating the newcomers. This kitten's viciousness had me howling with laughter. "Easy there, tiger!")

She fed them through the night, every few hours. Come morning, she was realizing... who is going to watch these sweet babies while she's at work?

 So, she calls the stay at home mom and her six home schooled kids.... but we were on the way to Pendleton (about 45 minutes away) for our yearly state testing! I told her we would LOVE to foster the babies, right after we took 3 hours of state academic tests.

 And it worked out! She brought them over as soon as we got back. We fed them with little eye droppers and then took them out for exercise.

 Here's our puppy trying to figure out what they are. The hissing and back arching was pretty hilarious.

 We put the dog back in the house so the kitties could play without having to show off their Ninja skillz. When the day was over, we gave them back. My friend found someone to take them on full time until they were old enough to find forever homes. But we loved being foster parents for the day!
                                        
 Sammy learns to feed the babies...
                                                       
 My friend Barbara brought over a pick nick lunch. Deviled eggs, shredded chicken salad, fried deli chicken, mint chocolate chip ice cream, fresh fruit. YUMMY. And we welcomed her with... kittens. Here she is, helping the little guys feed one of the calicos.

 OK, now on to the recipe. You'll need fresh, organic lavender. Organic because we're going to put it in our food. No pesticides, please! I've had lavender flan before, but wasn't sure exactly how to make it. I decided to take an easy flan recipe and just infuse the lavender into the milk during the cooking. Here goes!

 Now, you'll need 1/2 cup sugar, plus 3 TBS sugar
    4 cups whole milk
ten stems lavender
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
fresh fruit for topping (I was going to use blackberries but my youngest ATE THEM ALL when I wasn't looking)

 Preheat oven to 325F. Combine 1/2 cup and 2 TBS water in saucepan and heat until darkened. This will be the caramel on the bottom. It takes about ten minutes and then remove it from the heat, let it cool, and ladle into the bottom of 6 ramekins.

 Boil the milk with 3 TBS sugar and lavender. Boil for 15 minutes. Let cool. Strain out the lavender. It should smell GOOOD.

 "Watcha cookin' ??"

 Here's the caramel in the ramekins. It wasn't as dark as I wanted, but I didn't want to cook it too long.

 Hm. Smells good, anyway.
Apparently I missed a step with the pictures!
Beat the eggs and the vanilla together in a small bowl. Don't over beat. Add in the cooled milk and then pour over the caramel.

 Fill the dish with about an inch of water. Bake about 35 minutes until set. Remove from the water bath and let cool. 

Since someone ate all the blackberries, I thought a pear might be a good match for the lavender. Mmmm. Not sure the variety, but it's delicious!

 Now's the hard part... let them cool in the fridge for eight hours or overnight. The next day, carefully turn the flan out onto a dish, letting the caramel fill the dish.

The pear was a very pretty color and looked right at home with the caramelized flan.

 All in all, I really thought this recipe was a hit. The little guys loved it because it was tasty, the middle kids loved it because it had "weeds" from the garden in it, and the older kids loved it because of the unique lavender flavor. Very delicate and sweet! For such an easy recipe, I would give this a two thumbs-up for presentation and as a conversation-starter!

 Last week was also my FORTIETH BIRTHDAY. Ugh.... Is it really possible? I feel so young! (Ok, that was a lie.) I was so incredible spoiled. Like these teal, vintage milk glass Pyrex from my friend Christalee. I almost swooned! So cute!

 And my friends Gail and Laurie sent Austen goodies! (Yes, we have been playing with the Jane Austen figure!)

 Google celebrated my big day, too! I felt so loved... When i waved the mouse over the doodle, it said, "Happy Birthday, Virginia!" LOL

My friend Stacey stole me for a movie. I almost never go out, and I realized this called for something special. THE RED CONVERSE.

And my sister came to visit and brought my favorite pie! Strawberry rhubarb. With perfect crust. YUMMY.

Leaving you with a close up shot of the pie! I'm wishing you all a wonderful weekend filled with delicious desserts and unexpected joy!

Let's Go WAY South of the Border: Brazilian Pudim

Hi everybody! Jan here, with a dessert so marvelous and easy, you'll be famous!

Giselle's Perfect Pudim

This is Pudim (pronounced "pud-jeen", with the accent on the second syllable). It's a favorite dessert in Brazil.

We call this wonderful concoction "flan", like in Mindy's post here, but there are some differences that take us from Texas to Brazil.

My friend, Giselle, who grew up in Brazil, wanted to share her recipe for Pudim with us, so she invited a group of us to her house last week to learn to make her favorite dessert, and it was so much fun, we decided to do it more often!

The secret, like most recipes, is in the method....

First, Giselle starts the caramel. She pours one cup of sugar into a pan and turns her stove on to medium heat.

"How long?" we ask.

"Until it makes caramel."

"Don't you have to stir it?" We all shift uncomfortably. We know what burned sugar smells like.

"No, you don't mess with it. If you stir it, it just sticks to the spoon. Once in awhile lift and twist the pan, but don't stir it."

Nervous laughter.

"Oh, and you don't walk away."

Sighs of relief. The sugar wouldn't be abandoned. It wouldn't suffer the ignoble death of burning.

And then Giselle walks away.

"While it's heating, you make the batter." On the other side of Giselle's spacious kitchen. Leaving sugar on the stove.

More nervous laughter.

"In your blender, put in one can of sweetened condensed milk." Giselle opens the can and poured it into her blender. "Not the evaporated milk. You need to use the sweetened condensed."

We make notes.

"Now add one and a half cans of milk."

Giselle measures whole milk into the empty condensed milk can.

"You can use skim milk and other low-fat ingredients, but I like the rich taste of the real milk."

Giselle is my kind of cook :)

"Now add four eggs, one half teaspoon vanilla, and one teaspoon cornstarch."

"Real vanilla?" someone asks.

"Oh, yes. Real vanilla."

Giselle hesitates.

"The cornstarch is not necessary. It's optional. I like to add it as insurance so the batter isn't runny. My mother says no."

(That is the first hint of Pudim culture. More later.)

Now, all the time Giselle is opening cans and measuring, we've been taking turns hovering over the sugar on the stove.

Giselle comes over to take a look.

"Oh yes," she says, not touching it, "it's beginning to melt."

Back at the blender, Giselle turns on the switch.

"Blend it for a couple minutes. Maybe three or four, until it's well blended. Then you wait for the caramel to be done."

"When will you know it's done?" we ask.

"When it is brown. Very dark brown. You can do it lighter, but I like it very dark."

Giselle lifts the pan and twists it a little, letting the dark brown liquid mix with the yet unmelted sugar.

"It has to be all liquid, though. If you don't leave it long enough, it will be separate and grainy."

She abandons the sugar again and it bubbles in protest.

Giselle reaches into her cupboard for her pan.

"When I first moved here, I couldn't find a pudim pan, so I used a bundt cake pan."

She shows us a cake pan.

"See how the middle is high enough so the pudim won't spill into it as it bakes."

Then she shows us her pudim pan.

"The pudim pan has a closed center, see? I bought this one on a trip home."

Once the caramel is completely dark brown, she pours it into the pudim pan.

"Swirl the caramel around to coat the sides of the pan."

And then Giselle pours the batter that has been resting in the blender into the pudim pan.

"Now you cook it."




There are several ways to cook the pudim, but they all share a most important step: the pudim must be covered tightly with foil to keep water vapor from getting in and spoiling the pudim.

Cooking method one: Set the covered pudim pan in a 9"x13" pan of hot water in a 350 degree oven. Bake it for one and a half hours.

Cooking method two: Find a large pot that your pudim pan can rest in like a double boiler. Put plenty of water in the bottom pan so it doesn't boil dry, and keep it boiling. This method takes thirty minutes.

Cooking method three: If you have a pan with a lid, it only takes twenty minutes on top of the stove.

I did some research on-line and found an official pudim double boiler with a lid. It's expensive enough that I think I'll stick to Giselle's method, but if you're interested, here's the link.

 How do you know if the pudim is done?

Insert a knife halfway between the edge and center of the pan. If it comes out clean, the pudim is done.

Cool the pudim in the pan. Set it on a cooling rack for about an hour, and then refrigerate it. Overnight is best.

When you're ready to serve it, run a knife along the edge of the pan and invert the pudim into a dish with sides. There will be caramel in the bottom of the pudim pan. Pour this over the top of your pudim. If it runs down the sides, that's good.

Now to some pudim culture.

Giselle's "fluffy" pudim

About half way through our cooking lesson, our friend Claudia joined us. Claudia is also from Brazil, but had never met Giselle before she and her family moved to our city.

Sadly, our little party was also something of a going-away party for Claudia. She and her family moved back to Brazil on Thursday after only six months with us :(

The family had moved here knowing no English (Portuguese and German, yes, but no English. Claudia's husband is from Germany).

Giselle serves us a pudim she had made earlier in the day. We can tell she isn't happy with it, but it tastes fabulous.

Claudia takes a bite.

"Mmm." She nods. "It's a bit...fluffy? No?"

We look at her.

"Fluffy? Is that the right word?" She says the word she means in Portuguese, and Giselle agrees with her. Fluffy is the word she means.

Then Giselle laughs. It's part of having pudim, she explains. Brazilians have it often, and everyone makes it a slightly different way. When it's served, it has to be critiqued, but in a friendly way.

And, of course, no one makes it as well as mother does. It doesn't matter whose mother.

Giselle and Claudia's children enjoying the feast

By the way, the next day Giselle told me she had made a mistake with that pudim - she had used baking powder instead of cornstarch. No wonder it was "fluffy"!

Now for the recipe:

Caramel Flan (Pudim)

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar (for caramel)

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cans milk
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Make caramel out of the one cup sugar by cooking it on the stove.

Meanwhile, in a blender, combine the sweetened condensed milk, milk, eggs, vanilla and cornstarch. Blend for 3-4 minutes.

Pour caramel into a pudim or flan pan; swirl pan to coat bottom and sides. Pour batter into pan. Cover tightly with foil.

Set dish in a 9"x13" pan with hot water. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours.

Or cook in a double boiler on stove for 30 minutes.