Leche Flan

I last made leche flan approximately 20 years ago.  Obviously,  my recipe has long been forgotten.   For the past couple of days, I was googling for leche flan recipes which uses whole eggs.  I do not like leche flan made of just the egg yolks or combination of mainly egg yolks and one or two whole eggs.  I know as a young adult that I like this dessert better using whole eggs.

Out of hundreds of recipes in the internet, I found one recipe which calls for whole eggs by a Filipina blogger who lives in the USA.  

Recipe below is my own though.  I decided not to follow her recipe exactly but used it as a guide. 

Two weeks ago, I had plenty of eggs in the refrigerator nearing expiration so I made two egg pies - my very first egg pies ever.  My husband helped me made it.  It turned ok, it was good even but was burnt a bit on the top.  My next try would probably be better... then I will blog about it.

I actually wanted to make leche flan but I did not have pans so I postponed making them.

Yesterday, I still did not have the leche flan pans but I really wanted to make them so I used whatever was available, irregular sized metal, glass and foil pans.

You will need the following:
4 pans 4" x 8"
2 large pyrex or any large baking dish to be used for water bath

Ingredients:
12 extra large eggs
  2 evaporated milk
  2 condensed milk
  2 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups white sugar


Cooking Instructions:
1.  boil water - 1 full water kettle
2.  crack 12 eggs in a large mixing bowl,
3.  using a whisk, beat thoroughly
4.  pour 2 cans evaporated milk and 2 cans condensed milk, 2 tsp vanilla
5.  whisk more until thoroughly blended, set aside

Note: steps 3 to 5 - blender can be used using 'pulse' instead of manually whisking

6.  in a large stainless steel cooking pan, pour 1.5 cups sugar
7.  in low-medium heat, wait for the sugar to caramelize, stirring constantly, waiting for it to change color from white to gold to burnt gold.  don't leave it unattended.
8.  immediately and quickly pour caramel to 4 leche flan pan.  do not bother to swirl the caramel to the bottom of the pan.  it will melt and spread while cooking.
9.  wait for the caramel to harden
10.  pour egg and milk mixture. use a cup to transfer the mixture from the large mixing bowl to the leche flan pan and while pouring use a strainer.  it should be about 2 cups of mixture per pan.
11.  cover with foil
12.  pour hot water to the large pyrex or baking pan to about 1 inch deep
13.  put leche flan pan to the "bath", submerged in the hot water
14.  bake at preheated 375 degrees F oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  when a knife inserted comes out clean, your leche flan is done.
15.  remove from oven, cool down at room temperature, transfer to the refrigerator later
16.  Slide a thin knife on the edges of the leche flan to separate it from the pan, cover it with a plate, flip so that the plate is now in the bottom and the pan is on top, set down the plate, knock on the pan to release the dessert down to the plate including its caramel sauce
17. Served chilled.

So how did my leche flan turned out?  I liked it, not very sweet but sweet enough and not too smooth and silky but with volume and consistency coming from the egg whites which I prefer.  My husband and 3 grown children liked it too, genuinely, I'm sure.