1.03.2011

Cheesecake Flan

Cheesecake Flan
I remember the last time I had flan.  It was my last night in Spain and I was doing all that I could to soak in every last bit of that amazing country.  When the square plate of smooth and creamy white flan was placed before me, caramel sauce running over the sides of the sweet flan plateau, my breath couldn't help being taken away.  It was a beautifully delicious work of art and I was lucky enough to be holding a spoon.


To this day, I still remember the way the velvety texture of the flan seemed to take on a life of it's own, dancing and swaying in my mouth.  It was a rather poetic experience and I was saddened when the last bite had been taken.  It's funny.  The first thing that I do when I have a seemingly religious experience with food is I immediately think of how I can recreate it in my own kitchen, taking guesses and making tweaks until it's something delicious.  My mind didn't go there when I had flan.  How on earth could I replicate something like this?  I just didn't think it would happen, but I came pretty darn close.


When a Spanish theme had been decided for a New Year's Eve dinner, I was instantly brought back to Madrid and the how sweet that first bite of flan tasted.  Knowing I couldn't recreate it entirely, I at least wanted to attempt to create something similar.  After careful review of many recipes, I stumbled upon this recipe by Ingrid Hoffman for Cheesecake Flan.  This recipe stood out because I liked the American twist of adding cream cheese.  Afterall, flan and cheesecake? Together? It seemed perfect.


I ended up cutting the recipe in half (mainly due to the fact that I only have 8 ramekins and I knew that having something like this just hanging around could be very dangerous.).  If you attempt this recipe, make sure you use full-fat versions of all of the dairy products because you'll end up with a creamy and rich flan cheesecake.  Although this recipe put a little time to pull together (the toughest part was making the caramel sauce.) the results made it well worth it.  One thing to also note, my caramel sauce inexplicably got rock hard in a matter minutes.  I attributed this to too high heat and I think I was swirling the pan too vigorously (SBK = 0 points, Science = 1 point).  If this happens to you, just turn down the heat a bit and add a little water to the sugar and break up the sugar crystals with a fork.  Bonus of this mistake? You end up with more caramel sauce to drizzle over your cheesecake flans...

For the full recipe, click HERE.

20 comments:

Fun and Fearless in Beantown said...

Your flan looks fabulous! Happy New Year!

Kristen said...

incredible! the recounts of your first time tasting flan in madrid pretty much transport me there. Great job recreating such a prized dessert.

Alicia said...

mmmm - I absolutely adore flan. And your pictures are gorgeous!

Jen said...

Looks delicious. And as always, the way you described eating your flan in Spain is amazing.

ashleigh said...

I have never tried flan, but it looks delicious! I love the way you tell your story with words and photos.

Kimmy Bingham said...

Yum!! Happy New Year!

Sirisha said...

There goes my #1 resolution of 2011...But, I HAVE to try this recipe out and I absolutely positively cannot wait!

Anonymous said...

I don't even like flan and that looks good!

Meesh said...

this looks absolutely gorgeous! great photos!

Justin said...

Aside from this sounding incredibly delicious, you take really great photos!

Melissa said...

This is really an amazing idea - thanks, Spain. I love cheesecake and I love flan! Do you think this needs to be eaten immediately or could be prepared a day in advance?

Meghan@travelwinedine said...

Yum! I love cheesecake and flan, I can almost taste this!

A Plum By Any Other Name said...

I have to say your cheesecake flan (brilliant) looks poetic. And you've already inspired me to break any new year's resolutions that had been quietly ruminating. ;)

The Small Boston Kitchen said...

Melissa, this could totally be made in advance! Just keep 'em in the fridge.

Jess said...

The recipes The Food Network has posted on their website never work out for me. :( Glad to see it worked for you!
Thanks for posting,
I <3 Flan!
Jess : )
www.livininthekitchen.wordpress.com

Boston Food Diary said...

Um yeah...this was AMAZING! Love it!

Lacey @ dishfolio said...

Oh my gosh, that just looks amazing. You should totally post this recipe and photo to dishfolio.com!

Strictly Foodie said...

I'm SO making this for my housewarming party next week!

I'm very much a flan critic; the best I've had was actually Peruvian. I'd love to eat flan in Spain!

www.strictlyfoodie.com

Anonymous said...

Great photos! It looks like your flan turned out delicious :)
I just thought I'd point out the type of flan you made hasn't really been "americanized" with the cream cheese. Flan con queso, (flan with creamcheese) is actually a thicker, creamier type of flan made in different latin cultures.

~a desert-loving passerby

Lisa said...

Ahhhw it looks so delicious! Makes me hungry ;)

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