By David Tanis
- Total Time
- 2 hours, plus at least 4 hours’ refrigerating
- Rating
- 4(200)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Flan can often incorporate orange notes, but this version looks to that jewel of winter, tangerine. The end result is somewhat brighter in flavor, and is ideally made a day in advance of serving so the ingredients have time to mingle. Be sure to let the caramel go quite dark, but take care to avoid burning it.
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Ingredients
Yield:6 servings
- ½cup/101 grams granulated sugar
- ½cup/118 milliliters tangerine juice (from 3 to 4 medium tangerines)
- 2cups/473 milliliters half-and-half
- ½cup/101 grams granulated sugar
- 2dried bay leaves
- 1small rosemary sprig (optional)
- ¼teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3large eggs, at room temperature
- ½cup/118 milliliters tangerine juice (from 3 to 4 medium tangerines)
- Tangerine segments, for garnish (optional)
For the Caramel
For the Custard
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
290 calories; 12 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 42 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 41 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 69 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Set a rack in the center of the oven, and heat oven to 350 degrees. Have 6 (4-ounce) ramekins ready. Make the caramel: Combine sugar and tangerine juice in a small skillet or saucepan. Set over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar, and bring to a simmer.
Step
2
Simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Continue simmering until mixture begins to caramelize and brown, stirring or swirling the pan, 5 to 6 minutes more. Let the caramel go as dark as possible without burning, to a deep brown color, then carefully pour a bit in the bottom of each ramekin, dividing the hot caramel among them evenly. Set ramekins aside at room temperature.
Step
3
Make the custard: Put the half-and half and sugar in a medium saucepan, and set over medium-high heat. Add bay leaves, rosemary (if using) and vanilla. Bring to just under a simmer, then turn off heat. Stir to dissolve sugar.
Step
4
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and tangerine juice. Whisk in the hot half-and-half mixture a little at a time.
Step
5
Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve set over a medium bowl. Set ramekins in a deep baking dish. Fill each ramekin with ½ cup of the strained mixture.
Step
6
Place baking dish on middle rack in the oven. Add hot tap water to baking dish so it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover dish tightly with foil and bake until custards set, 25 to 30 minutes. Start checking at 15 minutes. When done, custards should look opaque and just a little wiggly. Insert a paring knife into the center of the flan to test. The knife should come out clean.
Step
7
Carefully remove ramekins from water bath and let cool to room temperature. Wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
Step
8
To serve, run a small knife around the inside edge of each ramekin to loosen the flan. Invert a dessert plate over the ramekin, then flip plate while securing ramekin. Tap or shake ramekin, lift from plate and the flan will release. Spoon any remaining caramel around flan. Garnish with tangerine segments, if desired.
Ratings
4
out of 5
200
user ratings
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Prakash Nadkarni
Adding O.J. to sugar is a neat idea. Sucrose, glucose & fructose caramelize at 170, 150 & 105 Celsius (Wikipedia, "caramelization"). Water (10% b/w suffices) helps hydrolyze sucrose to glucose+fructose: acid helps glucose isomerize to fructose. But even bottled lemon juice/vinegar (10% instead of 50:50) works: fresh tangerine juice for caramel is overkill.Tangerine zest would help the recipe. (The low-pith peel is ideal for homemade marmalade: blend with bottled lemon juice/citric acid.)
Prakash Nadkarni
RE: Alternatives to tangerines - clementines, mandarins. All three (along with satsumas) are members of the same citrus subfamily ("mandarins") - the clementine is a mandarin-sweet orange hybrid. They are all (semi)seedless, have thin peels with very little pith, and are ideal for making marmalade or candied peel. (With navel oranges, you have to spend considerable effort scraping off the zest, where the essential oil/flavor is, from the bitter white pith.)
Prakash Nadkarni
RE: Almond milk substitute for half-and-half - unlikely. Almond milk simply doesn't have anywhere close to the requisite fat content. Consider coconut milk: see webmd.com/digestive-disorders/recipe-ideas
hi.gaye
More like custard than flan. Caramelizing the sugar/juice took a long time and turned out jelly-like. I think less juice would work better. How can you check the flan after 15 minutes when it’s so tightly wrapped? Because of the juice I figured it would be fine to just let it cook for the full time and it was fine. Pretty easy and tasty overall.
Phil
There’s more to cooking than just chemistry…
Johannah S
Mine came out slightly too loose like many other readers', and didn't quite hold its shape when I turned it out. But it was delicious! I think next time I'll add at least one more egg. NYTimes Flan de Leche recipe: 3 cups liquid, 6 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks, 2.5 cups sugarThis Tangerine Flan: 2.5 cups liquid, 3 whole eggs, .5 cup sugarThe chemistry just doesn't add up for this flan to set.
Nancy McAfee
This recipe just does not work as written. The sugar/juice mixture finally caramelized 40 min. after the 11 min. suggested. The extra juice added to the custard mixture meant the final result was very loose. And the custard baked 45 min. instead of the 25-30 min. suggested.
john
Having the same issue with the baking time - currently approaching 45 minutes and still liquid. Hasn’t really set at all. Turned up oven temp a bit to see if that helps. Will keep baking until they solidify more. Someone needs to retest and republish this recipe, if all of us are having the same issue.
Michelle
Amazingly delicious. This was my first try at flan and it came out great. I’ve done caramel sauce before so maybe that helped with getting the timing for that right. Pay attention to the consistency and don’t worry as much about the color!My flan baking time was exactly as stated in the recipe. I bet there is variation in how people set up the water bath.
VG
Caramel cooked for over 20 minutes never turned dark. The caramel which was left over from pouring into ramekins became rock solid.The custard is liquid even after 1 hour of baking. I don’t know how much longer I need to bake.
Judy Schwab
It was just the two of us for dessert, so used the leftover custard mix to make bread pudding. It was good. Next time I'll add some dark chocolate chips!
Johannah S
The caramel worked far better than I expected, though it took a long time (on a slow and steady flame, nearly 30 minutes). I strained the fresh juice so there wouldn't be bits of pulp in it, which I thought would burn before the caramel was done.
Nancy Garman
Stirring when carmelizing is a no-no. Sugar and tangerine juice do not carmelize, at least mine did not even after three tries and two bags of tangerines. Maybe it is something about the chemistry of the juice? I served my custard topped with delicious tangerine syrup. Tangerine flan it was not.
Nan
Caramel cooked for well over 12 minutes and never turned dark brown. I cooked it for almost 20 minutes and of course it turned to brittle and never did get dark brown. Why, I wonder? Could it be because I added a little tangerine zest to the caramel? Thanks for any advice.
Nancy
It took me 40 min. to caramelize the sugar/juice
jmurray
I also had to cook longer to get the custard to set. Maybe more like an hour.The biggest problem I had was with the caramel. I cooked it over low heat for much more than 5 min then 5 min more until it was dark brown. I did transfer it to my ramekins. But when it cooled it was rock hard. I couldn't be eaten. Clearly I should have cooked it much less.
Skip
Same thing happened to me. So I guess we're not supposed to wait until in browns - just stop after 10 minutes or so. If anyone else is reading this - is that right? Also, jmurray - did you end up making the custard and the dessert anyway? How was it?
Anne
That is the magic of the caramel. It turns rock hard in the bottom of the ramekin but somehow (I don't understand the food chemistry) liquefies into syrup while the custard cooks. At least it does for my regular flan. Trying tangerine flan this weekend.
Johannah S
It's supposed to be hard when it cools in the bottom of the ramekin (it's just sugar, after all, with all the water of the juice cooked out). It'll soften when it cooks with the liquid custard.
Mary Rivet
I couldn’t get this flan to set. I think it needs more eggs. Traditional flan recipes call for 3 c (24 oz.) of milk and 6 eggs; this one calls for 2.5 c (20 oz.) of liquid but only 3 eggs. Has anyone else had this experience?
Skip
I had the same problem. It was as liquid as milk when I poured it in the ramekins. What is that?
Ann Campbell
I made this with mandarins and it was wonderful. I thought the idea of rosemary and bay leaves was odd, but used both. I loved the flavor imparted by the rosemary, didn't really detect the bay. I agree that it take a lot longer to caramelize and even doubling the time didn't really get it done. Nevertheless, it was delicious. I'll make it again and again, for sure!
hi.gaye
More like custard than flan. Caramelizing the sugar/juice took a long time and turned out jelly-like. I think less juice would work better. How can you check the flan after 15 minutes when it’s so tightly wrapped? Because of the juice I figured it would be fine to just let it cook for the full time and it was fine. Pretty easy and tasty overall.
Nancy
Tangerines have been in short supply (at least on the East Coast) for decades due to a killing frost that wiped out orchards. That led to the large-scale importing (and popularity) of clementines originally from Sicily, Morocco, and Spain. Then California entered the picture.
Robin
Yeah for the great state of California ! You are welcome !
David Leiber
What do you do with the bay leaves and rosemary? Bake in Bain Marie or remove earlier? Seems awkward to encounter this later in ramiken.
Suzanne
They come out in step 5 when you strain the custard.
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