Photo by Emotional Blogster licensed under a CC license
Hello, flan.
One of the most versatile ingredients I can think of is dairy. It has a pretty neutral flavor and is rather Full of Fat. I appreciate that in an ingredient. Here’s the thing about fat–it absorbs flavors readily. This is why they tell you to wrap your butter really well and not to store it next to the onions. Liquid dairy has butterfat floating around in it. Skim milk hardly has any, and I don’t like it for baking anyway, but whole milk contains at least 3.5% butterfat and heavy cream can have upwards of 40%. Regardless, the point is that butterfat absorbs flavor. Here’s another cool thing about dairy. It’s basically a suspension of fat in water, so not only will water soluble stuff dissolve in it, but fat soluble stuff will, too. We can harness this to our advantage. Hooray!
Steep anything in dairy for awhile, and the dairy will start to taste like the steepee. That’s not a real word, I suppose, but you know what I mean. Anyway, there are a couple of ways to get flavor into dairy. You can heat up the dairy and then steep something in it for an hour or so, or you can leave the dairy cold and steep something in it overnight. If you are a poor planner, like me, or if you just run out of time, the Hot Steep works pretty well. Since hot liquid can tend to bring out bitterness in some steepees, you will get a mellower flavor if you do a cold steep. Either will work, though.
So, what’s the procedure, Jen?
- Heat dairy (or not).
- Put in steepee.
- Let sit until the flavor is as pronounced as you want it. (Or let sit, refrigerated, overnight–even 2 nights)
- Strain and use dairy.
What can I steep?
- Ground nuts–any kind. Toast them first to get the most flavor out of them
- Spices–cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, star anise–almost any spice you can think of
- Herbs–mint, basil, tarragon, lavender–again, almost anything that you can think of
- Miscellaneous–coffee beans, tea, strips of citrus zest, etc.
Sneaky trick: if you want coffee flavor without the coffee color, steep whole beans in the dairy. If you want the coffee flavor and color, crack or coarsely grind the beans before steeping.
Okay, so give me an example.
Fine. Here:
Ridiculously Good Hazelnut Flan
This hazelnut flan was the first dessert I ever developed for the restaurant. It is a little fussy to make, but it is incredibly good.
Ingredients
- 12 oz . toasted hazelnuts
- 3 3/4 c whole milk
- 1 1/4 c heavy cream
- 1 1/4 c sugar
- very heavy pinch of salt, , to taste
- 4 whole eggs
- 7 egg yolks
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 TBSP hazelnut liqueur
- sugar for caramel
Instructions
- Place hazelnuts and dairy in a blender. Blend until nuts are coarsely chopped up and the dairy is all frothy. Refrigerate dairy overnight. Strain through a fine strainer, pushing down on solids. You should end up with 4 cups of dairy.
- Whisk eggs and yolks together with salt and half the sugar.
- Heat the 4 cups of dairy with the rest of the sugar until just below a boil. Temper all the dairy into the egg mixture, and then strain into a large pitcher. Do not continue to cook.
- Whisk in the vanilla and liqueur. Taste for salt, and add more, if necessary.
- Cook some sugar to a medium amber color, then pour about 1 1/2 TBSP into individual ramekins or pour in enough to just coat the bottom of a larger container (maybe a 9" cake pan).
- Place ramekins or pan into a larger pan lined with a kitchen towel. Fill ramekins to within 1/4" of the top (fill cake pan w/all the mixture) and put in the larger pan. Place the pan on the oven rack and carefully pour hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
- Cover the pan with a baking sheet or with a large piece of heavy duty foil. Don't let the foil touch the custard.
- Bake at 275 degrees until just set. This could take awhile--maybe up to an hour for individual ones and even longer for a big old flan. A knife inserted into the center should come out clean, but the custard should still have just a bit of wiggle in the center.
- Carefully remove from oven and cool at room temperature for an hour or so. Refrigerate until cold.
- To serve, run a thin knife around the outside of the ramekins/pan, firmly hold a plate on top and flip the whole thing over. Lovely caramel should pool around the flan. Serve with a wee quenelle of whipped creme fraiche and some sort of a crunchy thing--hazelnut streusel would be nice. Or maybe biscotti w/hazelnuts.
Notes
If you don't need 12 4 oz servings, you could make 8 6 oz servings or you could just half the recipe to make 6 4 oz servings. You can also bake as one large flan and serve it sliced. Baking time will increase significantly.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 6 ozAmount Per Serving Calories 720Total Fat 51gSaturated Fat 15gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 33gCholesterol 308mgSodium 136mgCarbohydrates 51gFiber 4gSugar 45gProtein 17g
The stated nutritional information is provided as a courtesy. It is calculated through third party software and is intended as a guideline only.
So, there you have it. This flan is seriously good and seriously hazelnutty. I love it a Very Lot.
PS If you bake this flan too quickly, it will curdle–don’t rush it.
PPS Have you ever had flan that has little bubble-looking holes all up the sides? If you have, that means that the flan mixture boiled. That equals curdled flan. Which equals gross. So make sure you have enough water in your water bath, that you keep everything covered and that you don’t rush. (See PS)
Anna at Mediocre Chocolate says
Oh, I love flan…and hazelnuts…delicious. Wonderful idea about infusing the dairy first–it is like a big flavor sponge. Yum!
Jennifer says
Sounds delicious. If I cut it in half, would I use 3 egg yolks, or 4?
If I just wanted vanilla (and not hazelnut flavor at all), could I just use a vanilla bean? (Scrape the seeds into the dairy, throw the pod in, and leave overnight?) and then leave the liqueur out? Or should I substitute something else?
I’m excited to try making this. I love flan.
onlinepastrychef says
Jennifer–either 3 or 4 would work, depending on how rich you want it to be. Steeping a vanilla bean would work just fine–and you can certainly leave out the liqueur with no adverse effect. I hope you do make this; you will LOVE it! 😀
onlinepastrychef says
Just wanted to remind you that, if you aren’t using the nuts, only use 4 cups of dairy total–3 cups of whole milk and 1 cup of cream. 🙂
Sam says
I love the word steepee, I wish it was real!
The flan looks heavenly, I bet the hazelnuts give it an amzing flavour.
JennDZ_The LeftoverQueen says
That flan looks amazing, I love love love flan and I am crazy for hazelnuts! I am saving this recipe for later – as in, when I am not on this crazy weight loss thing.
Joie de vivre says
#1: I like the word “steepee”
#2: Hazelnut Flan? That sounds incredible!
#3: Coffee flavor infused milk? I think you’re on to something.
Libby says
Very nice post. That dessert makes me hungry. Years ago, there was a tea that I liked called Rose Petal and Violet. It was so wonderful – I would love to sit down with it on a warm spring day. I wonder if I could steep rose petals? Something interesting for me to think on.
Jesse says
“Ridiculously Good Hazelnut Flan”… what a great name! Hahaha, those pictures are making me drool…
Daily Spud says
When I think of dairy and steepage, I think of milk infused with clove-studded onion and then mixed with breadcrumbs and cream to make bread sauce, possibly my favourite part of Christmas dinner. Nothing to do with ridiculously good sounding hazelnut flans, I know, but also ridiculously tasty in its own dairy-infused way 🙂
will says
I love your sneaky secret. I’ve always loved coffee in dessert, but not always the color. This is a huge discovery for me!
How do you feel about vegetables and dairy? In other words, what about a radish flan, or something along those lines? Ever done it? Love it, hate it?
I’m moving toward experimenting using vegetables as dessert, or at least combining them in some way with the savory sweet flavors of pastry. Like, radish and goats milk cheese tartlets, or something. Thoughts?
onlinepastrychef says
You are talking to the girl who made horseradish sorbet (Okay, so maybe I made a face while making it, but still!). Anyway, I like where you’re going. Depending on what you’re pairing the panna cotta with (or whatever) you could do lots with this idea. I could see vegetable and/or herb-based sorbets or granitas (cucumber granita, anyone?) Tarragon could be a refreshing and welcome springtime note to desserts, too.
We used to make a goat cheese cheese cake at the restaurant–it was sweet-ish, but it could just as easily have been turned into a savory one. I think you should run with it, Will–can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Jennifer says
Thanks for the reply. 4 egg yolks, 3 cups of whole milk, and 1 cup of cream. Got it.
Now to finish unpacking my kitchen and test out the old oven that the kitchen came with…
Tangled Noodle says
Oh yum! I luvluvluv hazelnuts and flan separately and now together! My MIL gave me a head’s up that she’s making creme brulee for Easter dessert so this will have to wait a little bit – then, it’s flan-time!
wbsullivan says
Hmm, could one do a goats milk flan with radish and tarragon coulis! I really have no idea what I’m talking about. I’m all visual so things sometimes look cool in the recesses of my mind, but I wonder how this might taste. I want to turn dessert on its ear this spring.
Meenakshi Matai says
This looks yum! I’m gonna have to try it. Although I don’t eat eggs and have done all my baking (brads, cakes, etc) with ener-g egg replacer. Do you think that’ll work here too?
Thanks for your comment on our blog. 🙂 Hummus rocks!
onlinepastrychef says
Hi there, Meenakshi! I do not have any experience with ener-g egg replacer, so I really don’t know. If you can scramble it like eggs (ie: it makes curds when you heat it), you should be able to sub it. Anyone know for sure?
Franklin says
Well-written. Clear and easy-to-follow. Good job once again, Jen! Thank you. I am doing a pastry baking internship at a French bakery in Istanbul. The baker is Turkish, but she grew up in France. I will tell her about your site because you have some great information that could be helpful.
onlinepastrychef says
I’m so glad you’re finding my posts helpful, Franklin! Very exciting about your internship–hope it goes great. That’d be very cool if you share my site with the baker. Thanks!
Terrie says
Is there a printer friendly version of this hazelnut flan?
Jennifer Field says
It does now! This is one of my older posts and I updated it with Easy Recipe for you. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Betsy @ Desserts Required says
This is brilliant. A great way to bring in the flavor of hazelnuts without sacrificing the creaminess of flan! Sharing on Desserts Required’s FB page this week.
Jennifer Field says
Thanks, Betsy! It was one of my favorites from the restaurant! 🙂 xoxo