FLAN DE LECHE AL ESTILO LILA'S

This is probably my favorite Cuban dessert of all time. A real indulgence because of all the sugar and fat in this dish. I don't make it in the traditional Nitza Villapol style of my mother. This was my mother's recipe at one time. I suspect that she took it from Nitza Villapol's book, La Cocina Criolla, but I have been told it's always been made this way in our family. No matter, though, the ingredients are so simple that it may just be made the same way all over the island...from my mother's Oriente to my father's La Habana, it's unlikely that the recipe changes much.

My style is a variation based on Lila's, that great Miami Cuban restaurant renown for its steak with papas fritas and its flan.

Lila's was in business for over 30 years in Miami, until they were forced out of their lease in order to put in another Home Depot. The owner, now an elderly man, apparently decided to thrown in the towel rather than rebuild. Damned shame, too.

I remember going there as kid, with my parents and my grandparents on Sunday evenings for a meal. A tradition my family continued after my own sons were born. Those were great days! My dad would always start our meals with their mariquitas with mojo - a type of fried banana chip with this tangy sauce on top. Then we'd all move on to the steak. We'd all have the same thing - no variation - just the steak, the size of a small serving platter, cooked in onions and piled high with fresh cut french fries. No ordinary amount of fries. These fries formed a 6 or 7 inch high dome over the entirety of the steak. So good. Just the memory overwhelms.

But, dinner wasn't over because dessert was coming. And we all knew what that meant. FLAN!! And not just any flan...LILA'S FLAN! This flan was creamier and silkier than the one my mother traditionally made. The velvety texture coated your mouth and went down as smooth as drinking whipped cream. While all the bitter sweetness of the burnt sugar candy sauce provided just enough bite to be interesting. How I loved that flan!

Well, this is my attempt to mimic that flan. I changed my mother's recipe by removing some eggs and replacing them with extra egg yolks. I hope you guys like it. Just remember to be careful of your audience when you serve this. Many people find Cuban flan to be too sweet. It is definitely way sweeter than the Mexican or Argentinian varieties I have tried. But, hey, Cuban's national product has always been sugar, so what do you expect?

The Ingredients...

2 whole eggs (My mother's recipe calls for 4 eggs and no egg yolks. But I changed this trying to get a creamier consistency more like Lila's)

4 egg yolks

1/3 cup of sugar for flan

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of sugar for caramel

1 can of condensed milk

1/2 cup of evaporated milk

1/2 cup of heavy cream

1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla

1/4 teaspoon of salt

OPTIONAL FOR VARIATION: 4 ounces of cream cheese

The Equipment...

A whisk. But if you decide to use the variation using the cream cheese, you will need a hand mixer.

A large bowl

A small sauce pan

A large pan that can go in the oven, like a lasagna pan or a rectangular baker

A smaller round pan that can fit inside the large pan

Cook the Caramel...

You need to start the caramel before the rest of the ingredients because you are going to let it cool a bit in the bottom of the pan. If you don't let it cool a bit and just pour the custard mixture on top of it while it is still hot, you will end up ruining some of the custard mixture.

A WORD OF WARNING ABOUT THIS STEP...this stuff is liquid fire!! Even worse it is horribly sticky liquid fire. Once it gets on your skin, you are toast and an emergency room visit is your next step. So be very careful on this step!

1. Place the round pan you will make the flan in right next to the stove. Once the caramel is ready you do no want to walk with it across the kitchen. Like I said this thing is hot, hot, hot and burns pretty bad. Limit the walking you do with it!

2. Place 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of sugar in a small sauce pan and place over medium to medium high heat. On my stove the right temperature is somewhere between those two points on the dial.  You can add a little bit of water, about 1 tablespoon, if you'd like. I will be honest and say I have made it both ways, with and without water and do not see any difference. But my mother always adds the water. I usually don't.

3. Whisk this continuously until the sugar starts to turn brown and is clear. This process is very tricky because it will look like nothing is happening for so long, then suddenly it starts to bubble and is brown and clear. When this happens immediately pour it into the round pan and swirl the round pan so it covers all of the bottom. DO NOT TOUCH THE BROWN LIQUID SUGAR!


4. Now set this aside to cool a bit while you prepare the custard. Oh, and at this point, go ahead and turn the oven on 350 degrees to pre-heat because the custard will not take you long to prepare.






Prepare the custard...

1. Put all of the eggs and the egg yolks in the bottom of the bowl. Use the same one egg at a time procedure from my prior posts.

2. Add the 1/3 cup of sugar to the bowl and whisk this all together. (If you are making the cream cheese version, add the cream cheese to the sugar first and beat them together as if you were beating butter and sugar, then add the eggs.)

3. Whisk in the can of condensed milk, the 1/2 cup of evaporated milk and the 1/2 cup of heavy cream.

4. Whisk in the 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla and the 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

5. Pour the mixture into the bottom of the pan with the caramel in it.

Bake the custard...

1. Put the pan with your custard inside the bigger pan and put the pan in the oven

2. Pour water inside the bigger pan about 1/2 way up the side of the small pan. This is called a water bath. It is as if your little pan is taking a bath inside the bigger pan. Don't get water in your custard. You do not have to cover the little pan, unless you have added the cream cheese. If you added the cream cheese, then you must cover the pan with tin foil as if you were making a cheesecake.

3. Now bake this in the oven for 60 minutes. After 60 minutes, turn off the oven but let your flan sit in the oven for another 15 minutes.

4. Be very careful when you take the flan out of the oven because the water from the water bath is very hot and will burn you if it sloshes on you.

5. Put your flan in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before you eat it. It will not taste good or be creamy just out of the oven. It must get cold!