Tart and sweet passion fruit flanfeatured

I. Love. This. Flan.

This recipe is one of the first that I developed and posted to Instgram this past July. The recipe was a great success. Like the name says, this flan is tart and sweet, but when I think back on the post, bittersweet is more like it.

You see, the week I posed this, I couldn’t stop thinking about my Teta (grandma) back home in Toronto. I wrote about her in that post, about how she taught me how to love people with food, how she was an incredible cook and a relentless force-feeder. I wrote about how for the past few years she been too weak to cook. About how I loved her food, but that there was one dish she always made that I refused to touch as a kid: her creme caramel, the Egyptian term for flan. I lamented never trying hers, which must have been incredible, and said that while I can’t go back in time to try hers I hoped that I could make this flan for her soon. How I thought she would love it.

Then two days later, my beloved Teta passed away.

I’ve been importing my recipes to the blog over the past week, but I just kept putting off this one. This one hurts. But it’s also beautiful and delicious, and sharing food is probably the best way I could honour my Teta, so I press on with the recipe…

Making the flan

In the past year I have made many, many a flan. I’ve tried so many variations–using different milks, different milk to cream ratios, different amounts of eggs, switching the ratio of whole eggs to yolks, and so on and so forth. I finally landed on my preferred recipe for a basic vanilla flan, and then one day found some gorgeous passion fruit at the store and knew it was just what I needed to turn my flan into a showstopper.

Along the way, I’ve learned that there are three essential keys to success. First, always mix your custard by hand to create as few bubbles as possible. If you’ve got bubbles, let your custard mix stand until they dissipate. Second, always, always strain your custard. A sieve will catch any clumps and pop any bubbles. Third, always bake your flan in a bain marie (water bath) to protects it from cooking too quickly and curdling or turning rubbery.

To get this flan passion fruity, we will use reduced bottled passion fruit juice. This means you can definitely make this without fresh passion fruit or passion fruit pulp, as I know these can be difficult to obtain. If you can get your hands on these, do it, the topping adds a great brightness and texture to the flan.

The next step is making the caramel to coat the bottom of your pan. I used a loaf pan, but a pie plate or bundt pan work great also. You can use individual ramekins, but you would have to significantly reduce your baking time.

Caramelize the sugar with some reduced passion fruit juice and pour it into your pan. Swirl it around to coat the bottom. Work quickly, as the caramel will harden pretty quick (and you do want it to harden).

Then mix up your custard, making as few bubbles as possible. Check to make sure the caramel is totally hard, then pour the custard through a sieve into the pan.

Before putting it into your preheated oven, you need to set up a water bath. Take a larger pan with high sides and place your flan in the center. Put it on the middle oven rack. Then, take your hottest tap water (not boiling water) in a pourable vessel and carefully pour water into the larger pan to surround the flan and go at least halfway up the sides of the flan pan. Be careful to not pour water into your flan. I have found doing this after placing the flan on the rack to be the safest way.

When its time to start checking on your flan, do so by placing a toothpick into the center. The flan is ready when it comes out clean. Check on it often, you do not wan’t to overcook it.

Let it cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight. When you’re ready to serve it, run a sharp knife around the edge of the flan, place a plate or platter with a lip over the pan and invert. The flan should slide out along with it’s caramel juices.

Top with your passion fruit pulp for extra brightness and a little crunch from the seeds and serve.

Look, it’s smooooooooooth:

And kinda purdy…

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Tart and sweet passion fruit flan

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Latin, Middle Eastern

Keyword: creme caramel, flan, passion fruit, tropical

Equipment

• Loaf pan, pie pan, bundt pan or ramekins
• Sieve
• Large baking pan for water bath

Ingredients

• 2 cups passion fruit juice
• 1 cup sugar granulated
• 5 eggs large
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk 14oz
• 2 cups half and half or 1 cup whole milk and 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• pinch fine salt
• 3 or 4 fresh passion fruits for topping

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

For passion fruit reduction

• Measure out 1.5 cups of your passion fruit juice. In a small pan, bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer over medium-low. Let juice reduce to at least half the volume, until it thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon. Let cool.

For caramel

• Add the remaining half cup of juice to your pan and again reduce by half over medium-low heat. Add your sugar, stir. At first the mixture will be thick and slushy, allow the sugar to melt into the juice. The sugar will liquify. Continue to heat while stirring until  has a syrupy consistency and is a deep orange colour (think apricot jam). You don't want it to get too dark, as resulting bitter flavour will overpower the passion fruit. Work quickly as it gets dark and burns rather quickly.
• Once you get the colour you want, quickly pour the caramel into your pan. Swirl it around to coat the bottom of the pan, and work the mixture slightly up the sides as well. Work fast because it will harden quickly. 
• When the passion fruit caramel is rock hard in the pan, place it into a larger pan with high sides for your 'bain marie' or water bath.

For custard

• To make custard, add your eggs to a mixing bowl and whisky gently. Add your milks, salt, and reduced passion fruit juice. If many bubbles developed while stirring, let it sit a few minutes until they dissipate.
• Pour custard mixture through a sieve into the loaf pan and onto the caramel. The sieve will catch any chunks and burst any bubbles in the mixture, ensuring a smooth flan. 

Baking and serving

• Place the flan into a larger pan to make your water bath. Place your large vessel onto a rack in the middle of the oven and carefully pour your hottest tap water into the larger pan to surround your flan. This will ensure that the custard cooks gently and will not curdle or get rubbery, do NOT skip this step!
• Bake for approximately an hour. Begin checking for doneness with a toothpick at around 50 minutes. This one baked for 1 hour 15 minutes, but please test it and do not go by time. It should be cooked enough for a toothpick to come out (almost totally) clean, but it should still be jiggly!
• Let it cool then chill in fridge for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
• Run a sharp knife along the edges to loosen flan and turn out onto a plate with enough of a rim to hold the caramel that will pour out. Top with fresh passion fruit pulp if you have it and enjoy!

Notes

Flan should be made the day before serving for best results. 

If you cannot find fresh passion fruit. opt for passion fruit pulp sold in a bag. If that’s not an option either, simply omit it.