Mexican Cream Cheese Flan
This is nothing like the wobbly crème caramel you might be picturing. Mexican flan gets more sturdiness and richness from cream cheese—and comes together easily in a blender.
- Makes10-12 servings
- Cook Time1½ hours
- Active time plus cooling30 minutes active, plus cooling and chilling
Despite the name, Mexican flan napolitano has nothing to do with Naples. The custard leans hard into the dairy—sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream cheese and sometimes also cream or milk—resulting in a firmer, denser dessert than its European cousins. Mexico City home cook Lourdes “Lulu” Rosas Rodríguez steams her flan in a special stovetop setup, but we adapted her method for the oven. Baked custards rely on fussy water baths for even heat, but they’re a pain. Our workaround is a water-soaked kitchen towel on a baking sheet, which cushions the custard without sloshing and spilling. Baking the custard in different ovens revealed a 30-minute range in timing, so your best bet for perfect doneness is an instant-read thermometer. Following Lulu’s lead, we chill the flan for at least 12 hours before flipping it out. That rest gives the caramel time to fully liquefy, so it flows out over the flan rather than sticking to the pan.
Don’t forget to set the empty cake pan on a wire rack to protect the counter from the extreme heat of caramel when it’s poured in. Make sure to use pot holders when swirling the caramel in the cake pan. Since the pan is made of metal, the heat will rapidly radiate up the sides.
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