Condensed Milk Flan (Pudim de Leite Condensado)

Brazilians often eat condensed milk flan (Pudim de Leite Condensado) as a dessert. It is mostly home made although it is also sold by confectioners. The length of this recipe suggests that it is complicated to prepare this flan but that is not true at all!

Ingredients

• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 ‘can’ of milk (use the can of your condensed milk to measure the right amount of milk)
• 4 eggs
• sugar

Preparation
Mix all ingredients except for the sugar in a blender.

Use a pudding mould and a large pan. The pudding mould should fit in the large pan as you will bake your pudding in a water bath (‘au bain-marie ’). Except for that, the mould should be fireproof as we will 'grease' it with hot caramel. The large pan should fit in an oven. You can also use a double cooker.

Make caramel by melting sugar in a pan. Keep stirring constantly at low heat. Use a smooth, iron pan; do not use coated pans like ‘Tefal’. The caramel is ready when it is brown and all the sugar is dissolved. Do not let the caramel become too dark. Use the caramel to ‘grease’ your pudding mould. Work quickly as your caramel hardens quickly as well. But be careful as hot caramel can burn. You do not need more caramel than is required to grease the pudding mould.

Pour the content of the blender into the pudding mould. Put the mould in the large pan and put the pan in the oven. Now you carefully fill the pan with water (don’t try walking with a large pan full with water and pudding) to create the water bath for your pudding. Bake during one hour and a halve at 160-180°C (or 330-350 °F). Test your pudding with a knife: if it comes out clean your pudding is done. Allow to cool down and put it in the fridge when it has completely cooled down. Only when your pudding is cold, you turn it upside down on a large plate.

The pudding tasts better if you leave it one day in your refrigerator, but I admit that this is very difficult...