Recipe courtesy of Gale Gand

Flan de Chocolate

  • Yield: 6 flans
  • Total: 3 hr 5 min
  • Prep: 2 hr 15 min
  • Cook: 50 min
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Ingredients

3 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

4 cups whole, 2 percent fat, or 1 percent fat milk

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 cinnamon sticks (recommended: Ceylon cinnamon)

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

7 eggs

2 egg yolks

Directions

  1. Pour 2 cups of the sugar into the center of a deep saucepan and carefully pour the water around it, trying not to splash any sugar onto the sides of the pan. Do not stir; gently draw your finger through the center of the sugar twice (making a cross) to moisten it. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil without stirring. Reduce the heat to a fast simmer and cook without stirring until amber-caramel in color, 10 to 20 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat. Set 8 (1-cup) ramekins or shallow coffee cups nearby. When the caramel is cooked, quickly pour about 1/4 cup of caramel into each ramekin and swirl to coat the sides. Set aside to cool. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. In a saucepan, bring the milk, vanilla bean and cinnamon sticks to a boil over medium heat. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse for 10 minutes. Add the chopped chocolate and whisk to melt and combine. Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs, additional egg yolks, and the remaining cup of sugar. Whisk about 1/2 cup of the hot milk into the egg mixture and then whisk in the remaining hot milk. Strain the mixture into a pitcher to smooth it and to remove the vanilla bean and the cinnamon sticks.
  3. Pour the mixture into the caramel-lined ramekins and arrange in a hot water bath. Bake in the center of the oven until set in the center, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the water bath and let cool. Tightly cover each ramekin with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. (Or refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 24 hours.)
  4. To serve, turn out flans onto plates (you may need to dip the bottom of each ramekin in hot water to loosen the caramel.) The caramel will pour out and serve as the sauce.

Let's Get Cooking!

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dragonstar327

Delicious recipe! The bittersweet chocolate provides just the right contrast for the sweet caramel sauce and sugar in the recipe. I didn't have ramekins or a flan mold, so used an 8x8 pyrex for the flan, and a 9x13 pyrex for the water bath. I made the filling recipe as directed, but made a little less caramel since I only needed to coat the one dish - I used less sugar than the recipe called for, and used just enough water to cover the sugar. I heated it on medium until boiling, stirring occasionally until it boiled. Once boiling, I swirled the pot a few times to make sure it wasn't sticking, and then just waited until it started to caramelize (I think just being patient and not over-stirring is the key to getting a good caramel. I also used a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead of a vanilla bean. It turned out beautifully, and I got lots of compliments!!

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