Easy and elegant, this flan recipe is infused with dark French roast coffee and real Tahitian vanilla bean.
Serves: 6
Difficulty: moderate
Special tools: medium soufflé cups or 8″-9″ pie pan, strainer
Make ahead: prepare at least 1 day and up to 3 days ahead, chilled
Ingredients
1 + 1/2 c sugar
2/3 c water
3 c heavy cream
3/4 c dark roast coffee beans
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
crisp wafer cookie for garnish, as desired
Steps
Heat 1 c sugar and 2/3 c water in small saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high and continue to boil until syrupy, fragrant and amber in color, approx. 6 min total cooking time. Carefully swirl pan, but do not stir. Remove from heat and allow bubbles to settle. Remove from heat and immediately divide among six individual ramekins (or 8″-9″ pie pan); use caution, as hot caramel can cause severe burns. Quickly and carefully coat the soufflé cups with caramel, leaning and turning cups away from fingers. Set coated cups aside and make custard.
Bring cream, coffee beans and vanilla bean (pod and paste) to a boil; immediately remove from heat and let steep for 1 hour. Meanwhile, whisk eggs, yolks and 1/2 c sugar together until pale yellow, approx. 1 min. Strain cream into egg mixture, discarding solids. Pour custard into caramel-lined cups, filling almost to rim.
Place custards into a deep ovenproof pan. Bring 1.5 quarts of water to a boil and pour into pan around custard cups, being careful not to splash water into soufflés. Bake at 325. for 40-50 min, until edges are set and center jiggles slightly. Remove from pan and chill completely, 2 hours or overnight.
To serve, run a sharp, wet knife around rim of custard. Place a small dessert plate over the custard cup, upside down. Invert plate and soufflé. cup and gently shake custard loose. Pour any caramel from soufflé over the top and garnish with a cookie.
