Flan is a silky vanilla custard topped with a yummy caramel sauce. It's a very popular dessert that's creamy, rich, and decadent.

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A cake knife removing a slice of Flan from the dessert.

My family’s flan recipe dates back to the late 1700s/ early 1800s.

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As the only girl in her family, my grandmother learned to cook from her mother and inherited some of our family’s most beloved recipes.

The recipe originally came from Spain and had no vanilla extract. Vanilla is native to Mexico. That’s why I refer to it as a “Mexican Flan recipe.”

Sweet, creamy, decadent, and incredibly delicious.

Table of Contents

1 🥣 Instructions
2 What Baking Pan To Use
3 👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tip
4 More Mexican Desserts:
5 Variations
6 More Spanish-Mexican Desserts
7 Origins
8 😋 Hungry for More?
9 Mexican Flan

🥣 Instructions

Put the eggs in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs together.

It comes together very, very easily. Waiting for hours to chill is the hard part.

This is an authentic flan recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation. It is different from the blender kind that uses cream cheese.

It was given to me by my grandmother, the original Mama Maggie. My namesake.

A glass bowl with a whisk next to a zester and an orange.

Mix well until combined.

Orange zest is used to make this Mexican flan recipe. Some members of my family will even add orange juice to their flan recipe.

We just want a hint of orange not a strong “knock-your-socks-off” orange-y flavor.

Baked flan still in the pan sitting on a cooling rack.

Once it’s out of the oven, place on a cooling rack.
Let cool slightly.

Milks to use: Either whole milk or half and half.

How does flan vary from country to country?

They are very, very similar. Where in Mexico, we use whole milk, the islands such as Cuba and Puerto Rico will use sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. They lacked fresh foods, and that is why they had to use canned foods.

A plate covered with aluminum foil next to a knife and a kitchen towel.

Cover with aluminum foil and place in the fridge.
Chill for 3 ½ hours.

You can’t skip this step. Hard, I know, but it needs to set.

Overnight in the fridge is best. Although, it really just needs is 3 ½ hours.

A knife running around the edges of the pie plate.

When you’re ready to unmold, run a knife around the edge of the pan.

The DEEPER the pan, the THICKER your flan will be.

What Baking Pan To Use

In the video, I’m using a regular pie pan. If you are using this recipe, you will need to use TWO pie pans. Yes, two flans!
I recommend using a deep cake pan or a ramekin.
Nowadays, they have flan molds and flan double broiler sets that make it easier to unmold.

Two hands holding the edges of a large plate with a kitchen towel.

👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tip

Use a serving plate that is LARGER than the pan.

OR, the caramel sauce will spill all over the place, and the flan will fall apart. No bueno.

Two hands holding an upside down glass pie plate, molding the flan.

Invert the baking dish gently.
Once you’ve flipped it, give it a minute before full removing the pan.

There might be a section or so that did not completely come loose on the bottom of the pan.

That’s ok. No dessert is perfect. It’ll still be yummy and creamy.

More Mexican Desserts:

Tres Leches Cake
Mantecadas
Mexican Wedding Cookies
Conchas

Flan sitting on a cake standing next to a serving knife.

Variations

Pumpkin Flan, Chocolate flan, you’ll even see key lime flan. My favorite variation is Chocoflan which is a combination of chocolate cake and flan. YUM!

Do you see the picture below, and how the caramel is pouring down the flan?

Makes you just want to lick the plate clean! Are you drooling? Because I sure am!!

More Spanish-Mexican Desserts

Churros
Arroz con Leche
Rosca de Reyes (Roscon de Reyes, in Spain)

A slice of flan on a white plate drizzled with caramel sauce.

Origins

Flan dates back to the Ancient Roman times. You know, Cesar and the Colosseum? Yeah, that!

From there, it spread to Spain, England, France because the Romans conquered lots of lands in Europe.

The Spanish, though, were the first (or so it seems) to add a caramelized sugar top. They brought flan to Latin America, and that’s how we got it in Mexico.

We adapted it in Mexico, and someone in my family perfected it. LOL!

A slice of flan sitting on a white plate next to a cake stand with the entire dessert.

I originally published this Mexican Flan recipe for my son. What better way to discover your roots and your culture than through food.

Our foods say a lot about us, who we are, where we have been, where we’re going.

Traditions and family are everything to me and my family.

I know that my grandmother would have loved to share this recipe with you too.

😋 Hungry for More?

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Did you make this recipe? Please rate the recipe below!

Mexican Flan

Flan is a silky vanilla custard topped with a yummy caramel sauce. It's a very popular dessert that's creamy, rich, and decadent.

4.82 from 117 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Recipes

Cuisine: Mexican

Prep Time: 3 45

Cook Time: 1 5

Total Time: 4 50

Servings:

Calories: 202kcal

Author: Maggie Unzueta

Ingredients

Instructions

Heat ½ cup sugar in a skillet, stirring constantly until it melts.
It will turn a dark golden color.
Remove from heat.
Immediately pour the melted sugar into a round tart pan or round pie pan.
Swirl it around the pan to evenly coat the bottom.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs.
To the bowl, add milk (or half and half), ½ cup sugar, vanilla, and orange peel.
For the water bath:
Place a large roasting pan on an oven rack.
Inside the roasting pan, add the caramel coated pan to the center.
Pour egg mixture into the caramel coated pan.
Run the tap water until it gets hot.
Carefully add the hot tap water in the roasting pan and around the uncooked flan pan to a depth of 1 inch.
Bake at 325 F for close to l hour, or until a knife comes out clean.
Cool the flan on a wire rack.
Then chill for at least 3½ hours.
To unmold the flan:
Use a spatula and gently go around the sides of the pan.
Place the serving platter over the pan.
Flip the pan and the platter and allow the flan to come down.
Spoon any of the caramel that may remain in the pan on top of the flan.
Slice and Enjoy!

Video

Notes

Chill for at least 3½ hours. Overnight is best.

When you flip the pan, slowly remove the platter. Allow the flan to come down, or it can crack.

The DEEPER the pan, the THICKER the flan will be.

To make this recipe using a pie pan, you will need TWO pie pans.

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @MamaMaggiesKitchen or tag #MamaMaggiesKitchen!

Comments

4.82 from 117 votes (78 ratings without comment)

Mexican Flan Recipe + VIDEO