This 3-ingredient caramel flan is a very easy homemade baked custard dessert. It has a semi-firm and super smooth texture over a layer of sweet caramelized sugar.
Who doesn't love a bite of super creamy caramel flan, right? Just so you know, I love flan. Not normal love, but crazy stupid love kind of.
Just like I my love for cheesecake, this is not the only flan recipe on my blog. While this 3-ingredient caramel flan has a light, semi-firm texture, its sister recipe has firmer and richer texture.
So as mentioned above, this easy homemade baked custard recipe requires only 3 ingredients. You don't need a fancy vanilla extract nor varieties of milk in order to achieve such classic caramel flan.
This 3-ingredient-only caramel flan is the one true recipe that you need in your recipe tin box. You'll get such delightful and delicious flan that you've ever wanted.
What is caramel flan?
Caramel flan is an egg custard baked over a layer of caramelized sugar and inverted for eating.
The caramelized sugar produces a golden brown surface on the inverted custard with a thin layer of caramel sauce.
A classic baked custard includes simple mixture of whole eggs or yolks, milk, and sugar. That said, cheesecake, bread pudding and quiche are also baked custards.
What is this flan recipe good for?
This gorgeous, super tasty and surely addicted caramel flan is good for a lot of occasions such as:
- An amazing dessert for Mother's day because your mom simply deserves to try the best homemade caramel flan recipe on her special day.
- An awesome ideal dessert for any restaurant's menu. Because it's super cheap and fast to make and for sure can easily satisfy the most picky customer.
- A perfect buffet dessert because it is cost effective and you can mass produce these flans in such a short amount of time.
Cooking schedule for this 3-ingredient caramel flan
For this cooking schedule, you start to make these at noon and they will be fully ready to eat at dinner. Please adjust the schedule according to your own if necessary.
- 12:00 pm - prep ingredients
- 12:15 pm - make caramel
- 12:25 pm - spread caramel into ramekins
- 12:35 pm - make egg and milk mixture
- 12:55 pm - strain mixture into ramekins
- 1:00 pm - baked flan
- 1:30 pm - finish & chill for service
- 6:00 pm - ready to serve
Ingredients for flan
For this 3-ingredient caramel flan you will need, of course, only 3 ingredients. Bonus: chances are these ingredients are already available in your pantry.
- Condensed milk
- Warm water
- Whole eggs
For caramel sauce you also need: granulated sugar and water.
How to make super easy caramel flan (Cách làm bánh flan)
Make caramel sauce
- In a small heavy saucepan, combine sugar with water, bring to boil. Cook until the sugar reaches a deep golden brown color, about 5-8 minutes. It is important to not stir the sugar mixture during the process.
- Immediately pour about 2 tbsp of caramelized sugar into each 4-oz ramekin.
- Tilt the ramekin to spread the caramel evenly along the bottom.
- Then arrange the ramekins in a hotel pan (or any pan that has at least 2-inch deep) and set aside.
Make egg custard mixture
- Combine condensed milk and warm sugar in a large mixing bowl. Stir until the milk dissolved completely.
- In another large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer or a hand blender (or use your stand mixer instead) to whisk the eggs.
- Then carefully stir the egg mixture into the milk mixture. After that strain the custard mixture through a fine mesh strainer.
- Pour the liquid into the caramel-lined ramekins, make sure to fill them to just below the rim.
Bake 3-ingredient caramel flans
- Pour enough warm water into the hotel pan to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
- Bake at 350F for approximately 25-30 minutes.
- The flan should be almost set but still slightly soft in the center.
- Make sure to chill caramel flans completely before serving for at least 5 hours.
Unmold
- Run a small pairing knife around the edge of the custard then invert onto your choice of serving plate.
- Give the ramekin a firm shake or tap on the bottom to release the flan onto the plate.
- Serve by itself or with fresh fruit.
- Tip to enjoy caramel flan to the fullest: add 1 tbsp of black coffee/espresso shot to your 3-ingredient caramel flan.
Related recipes
Other easy homemade baked custard recipes:
- Super rich caramel cream cheese flan
- Classic Basque burnt cheesecake
- A perfect replica of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake
- Creamy Greek yogurt cheesecake
- Light un-bake Japanese tofu cheesecake
- Raisin bread pudding
- Soybean pudding
Did you make this recipe? If so please leave a rating and let me know how it went in the comment section. Also, don't forget to tag me #cookmorphosis @cookmorphosis on social media.
Easy 3-ingredient Caramel Flan
Equipment
- 10 4-oz Ramekins
- Heavy sauce pan
- Hotel pan or any pan that has at least 2-inch deep
- Hand mixer or hand blender or stand mixer
- Fine mesh strainer
- Whisk
- Pairing knife
Ingredients
Egg custard mixture
- 10 eggs ~ 1lb 4oz
- 10 oz condensed milk
- 25 oz warm water
- extra hot water for pouring into baking pan
Caramel sauce
- 6 oz granulated sugar
- 2 oz water
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F
Make caramel sauce
- Immediately pour about 2 tbsp of caramelized sugar into each 4-oz ramekin.
- Tilt the ramekin to spread the caramel evenly along the bottom.
- Then arrange the ramekins in a hotel pan (or any pan that has at least 2-inch deep) and set them aside.
Make egg custard mixture
- Combine condensed milk and warm sugar in a large mixing bowl. Stir until the milk dissolved completely.
- In another large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer or a hand blender (or use your stand mixer instead) to whisk the eggs.
- Then carefully stir the egg mixture into the milk mixture. After that, strain the custard mixture through a fine-mesh strainer.
- Pour the liquid into the caramel-lined ramekins; make sure to fill them just below the rim.
Bake flans
- Pour enough warm water into the hotel pan to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes
- The flan should be almost set but still slightly soft in the center. You can insert a toothpick in the middle of the flan to determine its doneness. There should be little to no custard stick on the toothpick.
- Make sure to chill caramel flans completely before serving for at least 5 hours.
Unmold
- Run a small pairing knife around the edge of the custard, then invert it onto your choice of a serving plate.
- Give the ramekin a firm shake or tap on the bottom to release the flan onto the plate.
- Serve by itself or with fresh fruit.
Notes
- Tip to enjoy caramel flan to the fullest: add 1 tbsp of black coffee/espresso shot to your 3-ingredient caramel flan.
Could this recipe be doubled & put in a 9×13 pan for potluck??
Hi Sherry,
How deep is the pan? If it is 2 inches, you don't need to double the recipe. The original one will fit perfectly in the pan.
I love flan! I haven’t made it but it looks good. In the instructions you need to change warm sugar to warm water. (Quite a trick 😂)
Warm sugar or warm water ? I’m Confused
Hi Dinah,
As stated in the ingredients list, it's warm water for the egg custard mixture. Sorry about the confusion in the instructions; I've fixed it. Thank you so much for letting me know :).