Classic Flan

Oh you can get so creative with these.

This is the classic one.  It's flavored with just lemon zest and vanilla. But the world is your oyster when it comes to making the flan your own.

Let's start with the base:  this is just made with milk.  Why not make it richer by making it part cream part milk?  Why not use coconut milk?  Why not use almond, soya or rice milk?

Flan flavorings: this is, like i said, made with lemons and vanilla. But why not add some orange peel?  Infuse it with nuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, walnuts.  Make it spicy, add a cinnamon stick, some cardamom pods, some cloves.  Add chocolate!  Add coffee!

Caramel flavorings: this is just sugar. But imagine: salted caramel. Mmm.

Ingredients

1 cup/200 g caster sugar 

4 cups/950 mls whole milk 

1 vanilla pod, split/ 2 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon peel 

4 eggs 

4 egg yolks

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160C. 

2. Pour the sugar into a pan over medium low heat until it melts and changes and color.

Pour the caramel into 8 ramekins. 

3. Boil the milk with the vanilla and the lemon peel, turn the heat down and let it simmer

for 10 minutes to infuse the flavor. 

4. Beat the eggs, the egg yolks and the sugar until smooth. Strain the milk and slowly add it to the egg mixture while whisking continuously. Pour into the ramekins. Line a baking tray with a towel and place the ramekins on top. Fill the tray with about an inch of hot water. Bake for about 45 minutes until set.