The amazing flavor of dulce de leche meets flan's silky vanilla custard and caramel. Dulce de leche is one of my all time favorite desserts as well as flan, so combining the two seemed like the natural thing to do!

What is Flan?

Flan, or crème caramel, is a creamy custard dessert topped with caramel. Originating in Europe and thanks to the process of colonization, flan is also popular all throughout the Caribbean, South America and Philippines.

It's a simple custard made with milk, sugar and eggs and baked using a marie bath to ensure a cream consistency. Each region has its own way of making it and all are delicious.

What is Dulce de leche?

Dulce de leche is cooked sweetened condensed milk. Different countries call it by different names like manjar, kajmak, confiture de lait or arequipe. The sweetened condensed milk is cooked until it reaches a rich caramel color with a spreadable consistency.

Equipment needed

For this recipe, you'll need a flanera.

Ingredients

Granulated sugar
Water
Whole milk
Vanilla extract
Eggs
Egg yolks
Salt
Sugar
Dulce de leche

Instructions to make dulce de leche flan

Making the caramel

Put the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Shake the pan first to half dissolve the sugar in the water. Then, over a medium-high heat, leave the caramel to form without stirring. Swirl the pan around a bit and wait until the caramel is medium to rich amber color, takes about 10-12 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on it because it will burn very quickly.

Pour the amber caramel into your flanera or large ramekin. Swirl the flanera carefully to make sure the entire base of it is well coated with the caramel. Set aside to cool so that the caramel sets.

Making the custard

Pour the milk, salt, vanilla extract, sugar and dulce de leche into a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Whisk as the dulce de leche melts to ensure it is completely mixed into the milk. Once the dulce de leche has completely disolved, remove from the heat and cover.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the egg yolks and eggs. Mix vigorously until foamy and a light yellow color.

Temper the warm milk mixture into the whisked eggs by adding a couple tablespoons at a time while whisking to ensure you don't end up with scrambled eggs. Once half the milk mixture has been added to the eggs you can pour the rest in slowly while whisking.

Place your flanera or large flan ramekin inside a 9x13 pan.
Prepare to pour your flan into the flanera. While pouring it into the ramekin, have the custard mix go through a fine-mesh strainer to ensure any egg or dulce de leche bits don't make their way into your flan.

Place the top on your flanera and pour in warm-hot water around the ramekin so that it comes to about half of the way up.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven carefully and allow to cool slightly on the counter. When cool, transfer to the refrigerator and chill for at least 3 hours.
To remove the custard from the flanera, run a sharp knife along the edge of each ramekin.

Flip the custard out of the ramekin and onto the plate. If your custard is being stubborn, simply flip it back over and run your knife along the edges again, then place the dish on top and try flipping again.

Avoid air bubbles in your flan

While your dulce de leche flan bakes, check on it every 30 minutes or so to make sure the water in your water bath doesn't boil or completely evaporate.If you see the water is evaporating or you see bubbles in your water, add 1-2 cups warm water to the bain-marie. A boiling water bath will result in air bubbles/ air pockets in your flan. No one likes bubbles in their flan.

Variations

Want a simple flan with no dulce de leche? Simply omit the dulce de leche and increase the amount of sugar in the custard to ½ cup.

Want to try a pumpkin flan? Try this recipe.

Want to try a Cuban coffee flan recipe? check out this recipe

Storage

This flan must be kept refrigerated in an airtight container. It will be good for up to 3 days.

I do not recommend freezing this dulce de leche flan.

Dulce De Leche Flan (Dulce De Leche Creme Caramel)