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Salted Caramel Coconut Flan

Tia (Aunty) Irma wrote out this recipe in Spanish for me on a scrap of paper. With limited Spanish I managed to translate the recipe from her hand movements describing the process. The original recipe uses evaporated milk which I have replaced with coconut milk (leche de coco) which is not an unusual addition in Cuba where coconuts are abundant. However, I did reduce the sugar, the original recipe calls for 1 cup sugar plus extra for the caramel. I used muscovdo sugar as it has a lovely caramel flavour already and added a pinch of salt because there is just something so good about salted caramel.
Prep Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup muscovado sugar
  • large pinch of sea salt
  • 1 Tbsp water
  • 400 ml can Tradeaid coconut milk
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 4 free-range eggs

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven 180C. You will need 6 x 120ml ramekins or 2 stainless steel containers (approx. 12cm wide).
  • To make the caramel: Combine the sugar, salt and water in a small saucepan and heat over a low heat until a thick golden caramel. This will only take several minutes. Pour the caramel into the ramekins or containers and swirl to coat the sides - most of the caramel will settle on the bottom. Set aside to cool.
  • In a large jug whisk together the coconut milk, sugar, vanilla and eggs until well combined. Once the caramel is cool pour the custard into the ramekins/ containers. Place the ramekins into a baking dish and fill with boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 35 minutes (ramekins) or 50 minutes - 1hour for the larger containers. Check the custard is set with a toothpick, it should come out clean when pushed into the centre of the custard. Cool before serving. If using stainless steel containers you can run a sharp knife around the edge then invert onto a plate, then holding the plate and container tightly give a strong downward shake and the custard should slide out of the container onto the plate and all the delicious caramel will run down the sides.

Notes

A note on coconut milk: My first attempt of making this recipe the coconut milk I used had separated in the can resulting in a separated flan - not very nice. I recommend using either Tradeaid coconut milk as it has natural guar gum added to prevent separating, or Kara coconut milk found in tetrapaks.