Creme caramel or Flan is one of my all-time favourite dishes. And I’m a firm believer of the saying, if you can’t make something better, don’t change it. So experimenting with creme caramel was very risky for me, in terms of returns. In fact, when I was making this dish, I didn’t think the results would be positive. That said, it is amazing to have one base recipe with which you can experiment. Creme caramel is one of those recipes. But the texture of this dessert is so creamy, it becomes a little difficult to pair up flavours.
About this fusion now. If you like coffee bite (the toffee) or any Mocha Frappes, you’ll really like this one. Its got the creaminess of the creme caramel, and the coffee and chocolate hit that mocha flavoured anything needs. I kept the caramel kind of bitter to compliment the coffee flavour. I felt that it would enhance the coffee flavour.
Like any creme caramel, I started off with the base dry caramel. In a saucepan, I added sugar and let it turn into a bitter, dark caramel on a medium-low flame. I then poured this into the flan pan, in my case, a 7-inch cake pan, and let it set hard.
In another microwave safe bowl, I melted chocolate with a little bit of cream. I did not add all of the cream only because its take that much longer to cool the mixture down.
Once the chocolate melted, I added the rest of the ingredients, i.e, cream, milk, coffee, sugar, vanilla, and eggs, whisked it to get a smooth mix and strained it over the hard set caramel.
I put it over a water bath and baked it for 35 minutes, till the top looked set.
I then transferred it (Without the water bath) to the refrigerator and let it set overnight.
Recipe
Sugar- 1/4 cup + 4 tablespoons
Chocolate- 1/2 cup
Cream- 1/2 cup
Milk- 1 cup
Instant Coffee- 1 tablespoon
Eggs- 2
Egg yolk- 2
Vanilla- 1 teaspoon
Make the dry caramel: In a saucepan, add the sugar. Let it melt away on medium-low flame. Do not stir with a spoon. Let it melt on its own. Pour it in the flan pan and let it set hard.
Make flan mix: In a microwave safe bowl, add the chocolate and 1/4 cup cream. Microwave this mix till the chocolate melts, about 2 minutes. Once it melts, add the coffee, sugar, milk, cream, eggs and egg yolks. Strain this mixture over the set caramel in the pan.
Set this pan in a water bath and bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees for 35-40 minutes till the middle looks set. Transfer the flan into the refrigerator and let it set for at least 8 hours or overnight.
Note- This is a very rich and cream dessert, creamier than a normal creme caramel. So I like to keep the batch smaller than my creme caramel. You can double this recipe and make it in an 8-inch pan. The cook time will increase by 15- 20 minutes.
How to check if it’s done? When you shake the pan a little, the top part should be set with very less to no jiggle in the middle
-ISHANI SHENOY- 