It's been so long...how have you been? What? You want me to eat you!?
In the Philippines, this is a delicious and creamy dessert is nationally called as leche flan (from the Spanish origin flan de leche, which literally means ‘milk flan’). The Philippine leche flan is much heavier version than crème caramel.
This is one of the most requested dessert especially during celebrations such as town fiestas and parties. Also I've noticed that among the desserts served on the table, this one is usually the quickest to vanish before your eyes.
The traditional recipe calls only for egg yolks, condensed milk, evaporated milk and sugar while steaming is the classical method of cooking it.
I can barely remember the last time I enjoyed this. The first time was at an old job where my manager brought it in for me to try. From then on, I was hooked. I recall my first time in Philippines meeting my fiancee's family and I told them my favourite food was leche flan. To my shock every morning for my stay they would have one ready to serve me for breakfast. If you've ever eaten this, you know that eating this everyday is asking for a heart attack.
I found this box of Leche Flan mix in my pantry. I purchased it at a supermarket on my last trip to the Philippines. It has been a super lazy Saturday so what better way to top off the night.
After a quick read of the instructions, a trip to the shops for evaporated milk and we were good to go.
So we started off by pouring the packet syrup into a buttered dish. We made two as we didn't one just one super thick flan. You then mix up a cup of evaporated milk and the leche flan mix.
After steaming it for 25 minutes, we eagerly watched it rest until cool and impatiently waited an hour for it the chill in the fridge for an hour.
Yum! Time to serve and taste!
The caramel tasted quite nice for something from a packet. The consistency was not as sweet and smooth as the real thing. Apparently it tastes like the flan that has been overcooked and was more cake-like. It was definitely more dense.
Though to be fair, it's a packet mix and overall it's not bad for what it was. Shame, I thought I found a cheat way that was simple and delicious.
