Chocolate crème caramel

I can now say with confidence that if offered a choice between "regular" crème caramel or chocolate, I would wholeheartedly recommend the chocolate!

Crème caramel (or flan) is a custard dessert with a signature layer of soft caramel on top.  You coat the bottom of your ramekins with a little caramel, then fill it with custard.  They're baked in a water bath, then chilled in the fridge until nice and cold. It's a great make-ahead that you can prepare a day in advance.  To serve, turn the custards out onto a rimmed plate.  As you flip it, the soft liquid caramel oozes out and puddles on the dish, making a little sauce.

It's like crème brûlée but with a soft caramel sauce instead of a hard topping.  It also reminds me of panna cotta but where panna cotta is made with cream and set with gelatin, crème caramel is custard based and made with eggs and in this case, milk instead of cream.  And clearly, this version deploys chocolate (I used 62% dark), which makes it even better.

I'm a big fan of any and all-things chocolate and my husband enjoys the occasional panna cotta when the opportunity comes up.  We both love a good egg custard.  In other words, I thought this would be a great dessert for us to try...and we both loved it! The bittersweet chocolate flavor is front and center here, the flavor is not-too-sweet, and the texture is smooth and creamy.  It's also actually quite light on the palate given the use of milk rather than cream in this case.

You do have to turn on the oven to bake the crème caramel but you'll be rewarded with a cool, smooth, chocolaty dessert that's both satisfying yet relatively light.  I thought it was well worth the effort.

Chilled Spanish flan

I had a few inspirations for making flan.  Way back in the day, my brother used to work in a Spanish-Asian-American restaurant.  We're talking roughly two decades ago, before "fusion" was hip and then commonplace. It was a restaurant owned by relatives of ours actually, and my brother worked there part-time as a waiter while going to school.  I imagine it was hard work, with late hours and weekend duty, but I think one of the perks of working there had to be the food.  I remember he loved their flan.  When I was making this, I was thinking about that...

Essentially a cold egg custard with a soft caramel top that provides a ready sauce

For my own part, I'm less familiar with flan than I am with another similar dessert, crème brulee. Unless you're in a Spanish restaurant, flan isn't something you see often on menus.  So I haven't thought much about it but when I did give it some thought recently, I realized that flan is simply an egg custard (a cold one) sitting below a layer of soft caramel.

And that brings me to a second motivation I had for trying flan at home.  I love egg custards - it's my idea of sweet comfort food - so why not try a cold version for a change! Without exaggeration, I make this warm/room-temperature egg custard all the time.  When I have whole milk in the fridge that I want to use up - and that happens quite often - I whip two of them up to enjoy with my husband in the evening.  It's smooth creaminess always feels both nurturing and nourishing and I love the flavors of the eggs and milk together with the hint of vanilla.  I have to say - if there's one ingredient I really appreciate, it's eggs.  They are quite possibly the most crucial thing I use when it comes to cooking and baking, and I always marvel at what the egg can do and help you create.  

Lastly, I made flan because I was thinking about cold desserts in these endless days of heat and humidity.  I was also looking for something I can prepare in advance.  With the busy summer schedule, it's nice to be to cook ahead when you have a free moment so that you can simply eat when the time comes.  Flan fit the bill nicely for our dessert rotation.

Like with most things, there are several versions of flan.  This one is on the lighter end of the spectrum - the custard base being essentially the same as the egg custard I make often.  That is, it's made with the foundations of whole milk, eggs and egg yolks. Some richer versions call for cream, condensed milk, or evaporated milk. 

The main deterrent against making flan must be the caramel coating.  I admit it can be tricky (the major issue being it hardens very quickly, making it difficult to distribute evenly in your ramekins) but don't stress about it!  Just expect it and do the best you can, like I did.  Because, quite frankly, it really doesn't matter all that much.  Once the custards go into their water bath and cook, that caramel redistributes.  When you turn it out, the caramel will, magically, be evenly coated and the caramel sauce will flow and pool before your eyes.

Being able to prepare these in advance is a huge plus.  I made these one rainy Saturday morning and stowed it away in my refrigerator.  It can stay there for up to 3 days.  I love opening up my refrigerator and seeing plenty of ready-to-eat foods.