Easy Coffee Flan

I have had this recipe for quite sometime. Lately, my sister, Kim, requested it. This is a very delicate dessert served after meals in some upper class restaurants. However, most Mexicans claim this one is from their country. It happened to me when I used to work at the California Pizza Kitchen and my co-worker, who is Mexican, shared this recipe with me. However, I like the very light version of the French flan recipe better. The ideas of how to make this dessert are quite similar and even the ingredients are very much the same. I believe each cook needs to change the ingredients a little to create his or her own classic flan. Anyway, it is basically eggs, milk, and sugar baked in low heat and in water bath.

 Ingredients:

The Caramelized Sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup hot water
The flan
4 eggs and 2 yolks
2 cups whole milk or skim milk (healthier)
1/2 cup sugar
2 shots of espresso or 1 tbs instant coffee, dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water
2 tbs Kahlua
9 inch diameter glass baking dish

 Directions:

In a small heavy saucepan on low heat, cook sugar undisturbed until the sugar is almost melted and starts changing color, swirling the pan constantly.  Add hot water. Continue to cook for a few more minutes until the sugar changes into a dark amber color.

 

Quickly, pour the caramelized sugar into a glass baking dish.

 

Turn oven to 325°.  Line a paper towel on the bottom of a roasting pan.
Without putting air in the eggs, whisk eggs and egg yolks together in a light motion, and then set aside.
Bring the milk and sugar to almost boiling. Remove from heat and slowly add some of the hot milk into the beaten eggs. This procedure is called tempering the eggs, so the egg mixture is now the same temperature as the milk and  pour the rest of the hot milk into the egg mixture. Whisk with slow motion and add espresso and kahlua. Mix well and drain the custard  through a fine sieve into a bowl. Carefully pour into the caramelized-sugar lined baking disk.
Put the dish into the prepared roasting pan and add hot water halfway up the side of the disk. Bake in the center of the oven for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Do not let water boil or disturb the custard while baking. All of the cooks believe this is the ''secret" to having a velvety smooth custard, and also the paper towel works as the way to stabilize the baking and to keep it from moving around.

This dessert  is at  its best when prepared a day in advance and refrigerated, so the flavor has time to mellow.