Muffin Tin Flan

I decided it was about time to introduce Zoe to one of Pat's and my true loves--Mexican food. Is that even 'politically correct'? There was a girl in one of my classes last semester that would always grumble under her breath and shake her head whenever our instructor said, "mexican food"... but, you get the picture.

Since we were having tacos and horchata for dinner, flan for dessert just made sense. ;) There is something so fun about making flan. And it's oh so easy! And delicious, of course. 

Mmmmm! :)

Thanks to a wonderful suggestion from Pat, I ended up making mini flans in a muffin tin, instead of the usual 9 inch round pan. While I'm no flan pro, the 2 or 3 other times I've made it I have always had people comment on how difficult it must be to make, etc. And it definitely isn't.

This is the recipe I like to use, with a few small changes. 

Fist, begin melting the sugar over low-medium heat. I add a few drops of lemon juice to the sugar. I could be crazy, but I think I remember hearing it helps with the melting...

As you keep melting and stirring, the sugar will turn a little rocky. This is a good thing.

Stay patient. The sugar will turn liquid after a few more minutes, and you just keep stirring as it darkens. The color you want is a dark, amber color. 

I should have probably gone a little darker, but I had a cute little 3 year old helping me that was getting a little impatient.

So next, I spooned the melted sugar into the muffin tin, which had been sitting in the warm oven. If you pour the sugar right into a cold or room temp pan, it will harden too quickly to spread. But I guess I didn't have to worry about that with the muffin tin, due to the tiny space I had to fill...

While I was melting the sugar, I had some help mixing up the rest of the ingredients and whipping up the eggs. I also like to add in 4 oz. of cream cheese to make the flan a little more firm. Keeps us from having to leave in it in the refrigerator overnight. :) 

Then it all gets poured on top of the melted sugar and baked @ 350. Our oven is a little whacky, so I didn't trust to just leave it for a certain amount of time. I just kept checking the oven every few minutes after the 10 minute mark to see when the middles had set, and then I removed them and let the pan sit for a little over an hour, while we munched on our tacos and horchata.

The final few steps are the trickiest. I boiled some water and dumped a few inches of the water into the sink and let the pan sit in the boiled water to melt the sugar down again.

Then I used a knife around the edges to separate the custard from the pan. There has to be an easier/prettier way to do this part.

Finally, I flipped the whole thing over onto a cookie sheet and WAH-LAH!

They weren't the most beautiful little flan, but they sure were tasty and fun to make!