The Best Flan You'll Ever Have

It's a strong assertion, I know. I stand firmly by the fact that my family makes the best flan ever. Consider yourselves lucky because I'm going to share the recipe with you. Hopefully I am not disowned for revealing a family secret.

The Verdugo Family Flan Recipe

Ingredients:

6 large eggs

1 11.5 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 12 oz. can evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 c. granulated sugar (roughly)

Supplies:

Stainless steel flan pan, or

Cookie tin (like the kind sugar cookies come in)

Aluminum pan to use for water bath

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

The flan mixture:

Ready for the hard part (kidding); take the first five ingredients and mix together in a blender until well combined and nice and frothy. You can also use a stand mixer or a hand mixer, whatever you happen to have available. Set the mixture aside.

To caramelize the sugar:

Add the granulated sugar to a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add a small amount of water and stir constantly with a wooden spoon. The sugar will start to harden a bit and get clumpy. This is the point where you'll assume you've ruined it. Don't fret, just keep stirring until the sugar reaches a boil. Remove from heat when the sugar turns into a nice medium brown syrup. Coat the bottom of the flan pan or cookie tin with the caramelized sugar. Do your best to coat the bottom of the pan. The sugar is going to cool immediately so don't worry if you aren't about to cover the entire bottom. Warning: caramelized sugar is extremely hot so be careful when pouring in the pan. Be sure to use pot holders or oven mitts so you do not get burned.

Pour the flan mixture into the pan on top of the caramelized sugar and place lid on pan/tin. Place the flan pan into the aluminum tray and put in oven. I like to add the water bath once the tray is in the oven, I spill often. Add several inches of water to the aluminum tray, enough to come half way up the side of the pan. Bake flan for 45 minutes. Remove flan from oven and water bath and allow to cool completely before removing from pan. Once cool, run a knife along the edge of pan, place plate on top flan plan and flip. Flan should come out cleanly. Some times some suction action happens but don't sweat it. Give the pan a little wiggle and press on the bottom a bit, the flan should come out clean. It will be beautiful.