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Don’t be fooled people, this recipe originates from South America not France! Imagine my delight when I turned the page in my Mexican cookbook to see one of my favourite desserts, crème caramel, also known as flan. Who could resist the rich flavours and soft texture of a crème caramel? Not me! Nor Julia! Nor Sarah!

I’ve attempted crème caramels a few of times before trying a couple of different recipes. On one occasion I had trouble unmoulding them, on another I burned the caramel and in yet another failed attempt my custard didn’t set. I’m pleased to report that these crème caramels were delicious and from now on this will be my go-to recipe!

This recipe is from the book “Mexican Cantina Cooking” by Jean-Pierre Vincken.

Ingredients

• 10 tbsp granulated sugar
• 5 tbsp water
• 750mL milk
• 1 vanilla pod, split open lengthways
• 2 whole eggs
• 6 egg yolks
• 200g caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180^oC (I had to adjust this down to 160^OC in a fan forced oven because the tops started to brown)
2. For the caramel, gently heat the sugar with the water in a heavy-based pain. As soon as the sugar gets a bit of colour, pour it into the prepared moulds. Tip the moulds to spread the caramel around the sides too
3. Pour the milk into a separate pan, add the vanilla pod and heat gently for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for a little while
4. Whisk the eggs, yolks and sugar together in a bowl. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously. Strain the mixture through a sieve and pour it into the caramel moulds
5. Put the moulds into a deep oven-proof dish. Fill the dish with boiling water up to two-thirds of the height of the moulds*
6. Check whether the flans are ready after 50 minutes. Prick the centre of a flan with a skewer: the skewer should be clean when it comes out. Remove the flans from the oven and leave to cool
7. To serve, turn the flans out onto small serving plates. It will help with unmoulding to run a knife around the edge of the moulds first. The moulds can also be dipped into hot water briefly to loosen them

*An interesting tip this book gave was to add a couple of egg shells to the baking dish filled with water to stop the water splashing into the crème caramels when it boiled. Just like adding marble chips to a school Science experiment!