Hey, guys! I know that Christmas is over and although I had planned to share a few recipes on the blog before Christmas, I was really busy and didn’t get a chance to do it. When my mom was making dessert for our Christmas Eve dinner, it occurred to me that I could share this one since it’s pretty easy to make. As she was making Flan de queso (Cream cheese flan), I decided to jot everything down. Because of that, I was only able to get a picture of the final product, sorry. I know that flan is a dessert that is made in almost all of Latin America, but this recipe is the one my mom makes, which in turn was handed down to her by her mother, my grandmother. Now, I’m sharing it with you. You can make it for any party, get together or just for you and your family at home. It’s a simple and quick recipe and I hope you like it.

Ingredients:

1 can – Nestlé La Lechera sweetened condensed milk  (any other brand will do)

1 can – Carnation evaporated milk  (any other brand will do)

12 oz. – whole or 2% milk

5 eggs

1 teaspoon – pure vanilla extract

8 oz (1 bar) – Philadelphia cream cheese

(you can use any brand of cream cheese but Philadelphia has the best taste which is why we use it)

1-2 cups – sugar

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Preparation:

Prior to preparing the mix, turn on the oven – bake at 350 degrees.

Then, mix all of the liquid ingredients in the blender and blend them. Then, add the eggs and blend again. Finally, cut the cream cheese bar into smaller pieces and put it into the blender and blend again so all the ingredients can mix together.

Once that’s done, prepare the caramel for the flan prior to pouring the mix in a baking pan. To do that, pour 1-2 cups of sugar in a pot over high heat and stir continuously, so it doesn’t burn. Once it becomes caramel, pour it into the baking pan (no greasing of the pan necessary) and then pour the mixture on top of the caramel. You can use any size or shape of baking pan you wish.

Next, place the baking pan in a ‘baño de María‘ or bain-marie (water bath) in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, give or take. Check continuously on the flan by inserting either a toothpick or a steak knife into it to check how it’s coming along. Once the toothpick or steak knife comes out clean, the flan is ready.

Remove the flan from the oven and let cool for awhile before putting it in the refrigerator. Once you’re ready to serve it, flip it over as you would with any cake so the caramel falls on top of the flan (as seen in the picture above). Then, serve chilled (you can add whipped cream on top) and enjoy!

If you make it, let me know how it turned out and if you liked it!

Hope you keep enjoying the holidays!

becky (2)