Easiest Flan Ever

Day 42: You can keep your pumpkin pie. You can even keep your pecan pie (and I never thought I'd hear myself say those words). I'm having flan for dessert. What's flan? Just the most delicious, decadent firm custard you can imagine swimming in a sea of caramel sauce! Now, there are several ways you can make flan, most of which involve a trip to the grocery store because most of us don't keep fresh cream in our fridges. However, I do keep both evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk on hand, and as it turns out, that plus eggs, sugar and vanilla are all you'll need. And good timing. Flan needs to be made 8-12 hours in advance so the caramelized sugar can liquefy. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Let's just assume it's yesterday.

Add 1/4 cup of water to 3/4 cups of sugar and place over medium to medium-high heat. You can stir it right here at the onset, but at no time afterwards. Just cook it until the sugar takes on a golden-brown hue. You can wash the sides of the pan down if crystal begin to form. Use a little water on a pastry brush, but be careful not to drip into the boiling sugar. Once your sugar is nicely brown, pour it into an 8-9" pan, tilt the pan to cover the bottom with the syrup, and let it cool for an hour or so. You may hear it crackling and popping as the temperature drops. This is perfectly normal.

Once the sugar is completely cool, you can make the custard. Heat your oven to 325 degrees. Beat 4-6 eggs one at a time until there are no obvious chunks of egg white or streaks of yolk. Add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 can of evaporated milk plus 1 Tbsp. of vanilla (yes, a whole tablespoon). Set the pan containing the caramelized sugar in a larger pan (should be at least an inch bigger) and pour the custard over the sugar. Put the pan/pan on the oven shelf and add boiling water to the outer pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the custard pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes (or longer!), or until a knife inserted in the center of the custard comes out clean. Chill for at least 8 hours. Happy Thanksgiving!