YummY Vietnam

Banh flan (Vietnamese Crème Flan) is such an appealing dessert derived from Europe, but it is so common in Vietnam and it is considered as popular snack. With the fragrant, fatty flavor banh flan is not only appetizing but also good for health.

Banh flan is always sold at sweet gruel stalls or milk tea shop with price around 10.000 vnd. It is not difficult to find banh flan to buy and enjoy . However, not many addresses that give you tasty banh flan because of profit, some restaurants cut down some ingredients or using mixed flour for making banh flan at market, hence it can lose the distinguished flavor of banh flan. So, how to enjoy the authentic taste of banh flan? The lucid way is making banh flan recipe at home by yourself.

When it comes to banh flan with the “European name” and darkish yellow color, many people think it is not easy to make. Yet, process of making banh flan is not difficult at all, only with some simple skill you can make it by yourself. The main ingredients of making banh flan is egg and fresh milk, needed equipments are mould, steamer, cooker. There are all things for making banh flan.

There many recipes for making banh flan but not every recipes give the result as you expect. Some common faults are surface get cracked or dotted, fishy smell, too sweet, dregs inside…

Today, I will share the banh flan recipe that fix all of the common faults to help you have the most scrumptious banh flan ever.

Ingredients for banh flan recipe

For the Custard:

• 6 eggs
• 500ml milk
• 200g sugar
• 2 tube vanila

For the Caramel:

• 100g sugar
• Lime juice

Equipments:

• Moulds about 10-15
• Big bowl
• Steamer or cooker

Notes for preparing the ingredients:

• Just use chicken eggs, if using other kinds of eggs, it may make banh flan fishy.

• The amount of sugar can be adjusted, depends on your taste.
• There many types of moulds can be used for making banh flan with variety of size and material. Plastic moulds are the most popular that available at supermarket.

Process of making banh flan recipe

Step 1: Making Caramel

Heat a saucepan over low heat, add 100g sugar with amount of water enough to cover the sugar. Heat over low heat and stir to dissolve the sugar, continue stir well till the sugar melt and the color changes to amber.

Add some lime juice, stir well then turn off the heat. Lime juice helps make caramel more appealing.

Note: When caramel turn to amber color turn off the heat immediately, If not it can make sugar burn and get bitter.

After turn off the heat, Scoop caramel into the moulds, jiggle to let caramel create a thin layer cover the bottom of moulds. This process has to do quickly when caramel still hot because caramel is easy to be congealed. Scoop one by one the moulds then set aside at room temperature to let caramel congealed.

Step 2: Whisking the eggs

Break 3 eggs into a bowl (take both egg whites and yolks), break 3 eggs rest just get the yolks. If taking too much egg whites can make custard hard, it is the reason many people just use yolks. However, with this banh flan recipe you can use both egg whites and yolks but ensure that the egg whites less than the yolks.

Add some sugar into the bowl of eggs and stir lightly till the sugar dissolve. Remember to stir lightly to avoid create bubbles. If whisking the eggs creates bubbles, it can makes banh flan get some dots on the surface when it done.

Step 3: Making the milk

Pour fresh milk into a pot then heat over the low heat, just boil milk about 70-80⁰c, Remember to stir the milk well to keep milk hot equally and not over cooked.

Step 4: Mixing milk with egg

Pour the milk gradually into the mixture of egg, remember to stir evenly

Add some sugar and vanilla then stir evenly.

In this step remember to stir light to avoid creating bubbles.

After all ingredients combined, pour the mixture through sieve to get the smooth mixture, get rid of scum. It is one tip to make banh flan smooth and avoid dots on the surface.

Step 5: Pour the mixture into moulds

Pour the mixture of milk and eggs into the moulds, do not pour to much.

Step 6: Baking or steaming the banh flan

Banh flan can be baked or steamed, depends on your condition.

Baking method:

Preheat the oven before 5 minutes about 175⁰C . Pour the boiled water into the tray then arrange the moulds on the tray.

Bake for 25-40 minutes to get the banh flan cooked.

Steaming method:

To steam the banh flan you can use a steamer or cooker.

Pour the boiled water into steamer, place steamer compartment over the water, make sure water can not cover the steamer compartment.

Place the mouths on the steamer compartment. Use a clean towel to cover all the moulds to avoid the water from lid drop to moulds and avoid getting bubble dots. If you use plastic moulds, you can take the lid to cover the moulds.

Steam for 30-40 minutes to get banh flan cooked .

Step 7: The result

When banh flan cooked, take them out at set at room temperature.

Unmould banh flan by place the mould upside down onto a plate to let the flan pop out.

Requirements for banh flan

Banh flan is made from simple ingredients but it need to meet some requirements to ensure the flavor of banh flan. It should has some criterion:

• The flan has yellowish color (it can be dark yellow if using much yolks)
• The flan do not be broken once popping out, brown caramel layer cover the surface harmoniously.
• It must be smooth and showy both inside and the surface.
• When eating, the flan must be smooth and melting in the mouth when eating. The flan get harmoniously sweet, greasy from egg and milk mixed with caramel.

When should enoy banh flan

Banh flan can be enjoyed anytime as a dessert especially after meals. Banh flan has a lot of nutrition so do not eat too much or eat before sleeping because it can make you fatter.

With the natural ingredients and appealing flavor, banh flan is one of the favorite dish for children. You can take banh flan as snack or collation.

Banh flan can be preserve in fridge before eating, serving when banh flan chilled is the best. Banh flan is often served with some coffee, coconut milk and some shaved ice.