Today I made 10 small bowls of Mexican flan. A type of custard. A flan is an egg, cream and sugar based desert with a cooked sugar “sauce” and then very carefully baked until the egg, cream mixture gels. the sauce is poured into the dishes first , then the custard mixture is pour on top the baked. Then refrigerated until cold. Absolutely yummy.
Improperly made, the “custard” curdles. Even though a Mexican chef invented a flan, most Mexican cooks ruin it by improperly baking it.
Nicely done Bakerman.
Goodness. You ‘really’ can cook. That looks delicious. I’ve never made flan before but I definitely had it and it’s really good.
Thank you. The trick is to very carefully melt, boil and lightly brown the sugar. Other than that, once the custard dishes are full, and placed in a 4 cm deep baking pan, the secret to keep custard from curdling, pour water into pan about half way up the sides of the dishes.
PS: when making the caramel “sauce”, and when the sugar is the right color, I add a hefty splash or 2 of rum.
In the UK a flan is a pastry case with with either a sweet or savoury filling.
The pudding in your picture, Bakerman, is known here as Creme Caramel.
Incidentally - Mexicans did not invent it but they did develope it - see here:-
Dessert: Flan
Origin of the Name: The name comes from the Old French word, “flaon,” from the Late Latin word, “fladon,” which is derived from the Old High German word “flado,” which means a flat cake or object.
History: Like many desserts (including our beloved cheesecake), flan’s existence began during the Roman Empire. The Romans were the first to domesticate chickens and they found themselves in the middle of an egg surplus. So they used techniques they stole learned from the Greeks to develop new egg-based recipes. These recipes, as you can imagine, resulted in loads of dishes and desserts, including flan.
Back then, most versions of the dessert were savory rather than sweet and included flavors like eel sprinkled with pepper. But a few early recorded recipes contained the only sweetener of the day: honey. And as the Romans conquered basically all of Europe, their customs, beliefs, and recipes went with them. The sweet variety of flan gripped the newly vanquished lands and when the Empire fell in 476 CE, flan survived.
Of all the peoples introduced to this dessert, the Spanish were particularly taken with it (and were the first to top it with a sweet caramel sauce). Like the Romans before them, the Spaniards brought flan to new lands, when in 1518, the famous conquistador Hernán Cortés landed in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
The Mexicans took flan to a whole new level. They created coffee, chocolate, and even coconut flavors and the recipes became popular not only in Mexico, but the rest of Latin America.
I used to eat this flan ( which we call creme caramel in thr uk ) in South America served with dulce de leche.
Tabby, thank you for the info. No matter how old, I learn something new every day. 
Me too - love it - especially when it involves cooking!
Or a crème brûlée if put into ramekins and sugar placed on top when the custard is cold. The sugar is then burned with a blow-lamp or under a screamingly hot grill (broiler) until it is fully melted and dark. You have to crack the sugar topping to get to the custard underneath. I’m wanting one now. 
