The flan itself is wonderful: delicious, creamy and incredibly filling. If you’re not familiar with flan, it falls somewhere between custard and cheesecake into creamy, cake-like dessert territory, and it’s an absolute revelation. If you’ve ever eaten flan (and especially if you’ve made it), you know that it has a deep caramel filling that oozes over a sweet, velvety custard filled with toffee and vanilla flavors. So, of course, flan and bourbon are a match made in heaven.
Traditionally, flan contains no alcohol, but when you consider the depth and complexity of a good bourbon and imagine it among the sweet, caramel and eggy notes of flan, it’s a no-brainer. You can use any old bourbon you have on hand, but if you really want to bring out the dark caramel notes in your flan, try using a sweeter bourbon. Many bourbons are distilled to impart notes of caramel and vanilla, which will add a spicy kick to your flan recipe.
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How to Use Bourbon in Flan
Flan is essentially two parts; The first part involves making caramel. Depending on how you make the caramel, you may want to add the bourbon at this point. However, it should be noted that this will only work if you choose to make wet caramel. This will affect the flavor of the bourbon as it will reduce significantly during the caramel cooking process due to prolonged exposure to heat in the shallow pan. For this reason, it may be preferable to add bourbon to the second half of the flan preparation: the custard.
To make the custard, you will need three types of milk (condensed, condensed and whole), sugar and eggs. Typically, bourbon and/or vanilla extract are added to the flan at this stage. Most recipes call for 2 to 1 tablespoon of bourbon, but it all comes down to personal preference. Note that too much bourbon will affect the setting of the flan, so don’t overdo it. The flan is baked in a water bath, which prevents the bourbon from baking – a little goes a long way. But if you’re looking for a little kick, add a splash of bourbon on top of the flan just before serving.
Read the original Tasting Table article.