My grandmother’s flan recipe and her secret ingredient
There are countless recipes for making flan. Some of them require cream and milk, but in my opinion the cream makes it heavier and I prefer to use my grandomother’s recipe she followed to make our Sunday lunch dessert.
The Old House kitchen
I spent many months of my childhood in the home of my paternal grandmother, in a village in the Ligurian mountains.
That house, which we called "the old house", unfortunately no longer exists. Today before making urban horrors like the one that led to the construction of a 4-storey building instead of a 2-storey house in a historic center we think twice, but the legendary 70’s brought this too.
Life in the "old house" took place mainly in the kitchen. My grandmother devoted her attention to the kitchen, just for our family of four, at least three hours at each meal: I grew up turning around the table that had a marble top, as marble was the sink, while the wall at the bottom was almost totally occupied by a large economy kitchen, with the glass hood.
The floor was in octagonal tile stoneware with a cube and diamond decoration common for those times: for me it was an imaginary world, stairs to go up and down, in each tile there was hidden something or someone.
Meanwhile, the activity was fervent in the kitchen, often accompanied by discussions between my grandmother and my beloved Paulina, already nanny of my father, then mine and my brothers. There were some more complex preparations that required more attention according to Grandma and one of these was the Crème Caramel.
Grandma was right, making such a simple dessert in the only existing oven, the wood-fired one ,was a real challenge. No ventilated oven and electronic thermostat at that time! For this recipe if the water in the warm-bath was boiling, some unpleasant bubbles would appear in the pudding, which made Grandma very angry.
The secrets of the pantry
The pantry was a small room next to the kitchen. It was not heated and was therefore suitable for storing food much more than the first, where the wooden-fired kitchen was alwaysworking, even in the summer.
One of the great secrets that Grandma kept in the pantry along with porcini mushrooms in olive oil , beans and flour were.... the apricot kernels.
During the summer, when these very good fruits ripened in the garden, she would keep the stones and dry them in the sun, and then put them in a glass jar. I was very curious and she explained that they could be used but very sparingly, not more than 2 kernel at a time...
The recipe
Ingredients ( for a 750 ml alluminum mould)
500 gr Whole milk
4 eggs + 2 egg yolks
100 gr sugar + 3-4 spoons for the caramel coating
vanilla
bitter almond flavor (the secret ingredient)
First of all, you have to coat the mould.
You need an alluminum mould, because it’s the best heat conductor. Do not use the non sticking ones because the caramel coating will not stick to the sides of the mould.
Put 4 spoons of granulated sugar in the mould, grab the mould with a pot holder – it will be very very hot – and place the mould directly on a medium flame – the gas stove is fine! . Don’t move it and in a few seconds the sugar will start to melt. At first is transparent but quickly it turns golden and then brown. It’s matter of seconds, keep holding the mould with the pot holder and start turning it so the caramel spreads everywhere. When the sugar is completely melted and brown – but not black! In this case it has a bad taste and a bad smell – remove the mould from the fire and keep turning the mould until the caramel turns hard.
The whole process will require 5 minutes but it’s the kee for your success because the caramel will provide both taste and a non sticking coating for your mould.
Meanwhile, switch on the oven at 160°C, and place inside a pan with some water a little larger than the mould you are using. Beware that the water is not too much to overflow in the mould once you put it inside.
Mix the eggs + yolks with the sugar. Important: mix the eggs first and then add the sugar keep stirring. Never the eggs on top of the sugar, they will be “cooked” at once!! Add the milk (warm it’s better but also cold it’s fine- not hot!!!). Add the vanilla ( 3 drops of liquid) and the bitter almond flavor, or the inside of 2 apricot stones finely pounded.
To break the kernel you need a hammer, they are very hard. Inside they contain a small soft almond that you will have to pound in the mortar before adding it to the preparation. Attention! Apricot kernels contain amygdaline, which in high amounts is toxic , but do not worry: you need 50 to kill a man, in our recipe we will take less than half a person. Trust Grandma!
Fill the coated mould with the mix, using a sieft to remove the foam – in fact you don’t have to beat the eggs mix, just stir- and carefully place the mould in the warm bath that is already in the oven.
Bake for approx.50 minutes.
A “skin” will appear soon on the surface, that will eventually turn brown. If this happens too early cover it with alluminum foil.
Remove from the oven and from the warm-bath, let it cool at room temperature and then in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
Serve cold.
In Spring I like to serve it with sliced strawberries that balance the light bitterness of the caramel.
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