Sylvia's Flan

I've never loved flan--too eggy!--but then Elannah came home a few months ago from her former job at the hospital cafeteria with the creamiest, most decadent flan I've ever tasted. It's almost like crème brûlée, which is a dessert I have yet to master.

Elannah has mastered this dish with a recipe given to her by one of her former coworkers, which is pretty close to every flan recipe I've ever seen except it includes cream cheese. I've made a couple tweaks to it, but this is a flan everyone can love: not too eggy, dreamily creamy, and covered in golden caramel.

Sylvia's Flan

Caramel syrup:
1 cup white sugar
1/4 water
1/4 tsp lemon juice

Custard:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
2 tsp vanilla extract


Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.
2. Prepare the pans for the flan: set a smaller pan (about 9 x 9 capacity, or four or five small ramekins) inside a larger pan with high sides to create a water bath.
3. Mix together and then heat the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a heavy-bottomed saucepan on medium-high until sugar syrup boils. Do not stir after it boils. Watch carefully: as soon as the syrup reaches the color of a new copper penny, remove from heat and pour into the bottom of the flan pan or ramekins, swirling the caramel to coat the bottom. Careful! Hot sugar sticks and burns like nobody's business if it gets on your skin!
4. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat softened cream cheese and then add one egg at a time, incorporating each egg thoroughly before adding the next, scraping down the bowl as needed. Then add the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and vanilla, and mix on medium-high until the mixture is light and frothy. 
5. Pour the flan mixture over the caramel in the pan.
6. Add boiling or very hot water to the outer pan to a depth of 1 to 2 inches, and then set the pans in the oven.
7. Check flan after one hour. It should barely jiggle. Test doneness by inserting a knife or toothpick into the custard. If it comes out mostly clean, it's done.
8. Remove the flan from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen the custard. Let cool for 5 or 10 minutes. Set the flan into the fridge and cool for 1 to 3 hours. Invert the custard(s) onto a serving plate and serve. 

I read that you can substitute a can of coconut cream for the can of sweetened condensed milk. I would add a pinch of ground cardamom to the custard mixture, as well. I don't know how many people like ground cardamom, but I absolutely love the exotic taste and fragrance ground cardamom imparts to a dish, especially when paired with coconut.

You can also melt 1/3 to 1/2 cup of chocolate and add it to the milks before adding it to the cream cheese and eggs mixture, making sure to cool the chocolate mixture slightly first so that you don't cook the eggs. I would imagine a flavored chocolate, a dark chocolate, or a chocolate with hot pepper in it would be very interesting.

I'll be trying these tweaks over the next few weeks. The school shutdown has now been extended to May 1st. The problem is that I might just come out of this whole debacle a lot fatter than I went in.