What Is Cheesecake Flan?

Series Summary

Flan, sometimes called crème caramel, or caramel custard as it’s know in the U.K., is traditionally a rich custard dessert topped with a layer of caramel. In the United States flan is a very popular dessert most commonly found in Mexican, Cuban and Spanish restaurants, although similar custard style desserts are popular in many Latin, Asian and European cuisines. Most recipes call for vanilla flavoring, but numerous varieties can be found, including pistachio, chocolate and fruit flavors. In these video clips you’ll learn an easy to follow recipe for a delicious cheesecake flavored flan.

In these free online cooking lessons our expert Liz Muller shows you step-by-step how to make this very decadent dessert. Her special recipe is similar to a traditional flan de leche, but made even more sinful with the addition of cream cheese. The steps are fairly simple, beginning with separating the egg whites from the yolks, caramelizing the sugar, and then combining the condensed milk, sugar and eggs with the cream cheese mixture. After demonstrating the unique baking procedure and refrigerating the flan, Liz shows you the flipping technique with gives the desert its distinct appearance. Be warned: this is in no way a low-fat dessert.

Video Transcript

" On behalf of expertvillage.com, I’m Liz Muller, and today I’m going to teach you how to make a delicious, beautiful cheesecake flan. Let’s talk about flan. What is flan? Flan is a delicious dessert, it’s an island dessert really, and they have different kinds of flan; all different types of flan. I’m Cuban, we make different types of flan. We make a nice creamy milky flan, but today I’m going to teach you how to make a cheesecake flan that’s out of this world. Now, the cheesecake flan; the texture is nice and creamy and smooth. With the traditional Cuban flan, you find it’s a little more soft and more fluent, like in your tongue. You know it just rolls in your tongue, but the cheesecake just adds a little extra stuff to it. I’m going to actually talk about also the way you can make a flan last a long time. "