Flan in the Instant Pot

This tasty flan is somewhere between a true custard flan and a very smooth cheesecake. Like maybe 60/40. But it’s easy and delicious and will surely become a favorite take-along.

Besides the Instant Pot (a standard 6 qt) the only special equipment you might want will be a clamp-lid flan mold. But don’t worry. You can use any 7-ish inch straight sided pan if you seal it with foil at the top.

ingredients

For the caramel:

1/2 cup sugar

For the flan:

1 1/2 cups evaporated milk (1/2 of a 12 fluid oz. can)
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk (1/2 of a 14 oz. weight can) This drives me nuts, but I didn’t take time to convert to metric
4 oz cream cheese, cubed (1/2 of the usual 8 oz. brick we all know and love)
3 eggs
(optional: a bit of lemon or orange zest)

in the Instant pot

3 cups of water, with a trivet at the bottom

method:

caramelize the pan

Do NOT butter or line the mold. Put the sugar in a small (nonstick if you have it) sauce pan. Heat on medium-high, stirring constantly. First it will make a clumpy mess, then as the clumps start to melt it will begin to look like caramel. The instant it’s completely smooth, immediately pour it into the flan mold. It’s very very hot. If it burns it’ll be bitter. Quickly but carefully swirl the molten caramel around the bottom and sides of the pan as long as it’s still liquid. The pan might heat up as you do this.

Mix the custard:

While the caramel cools, put the custard ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and liquid. Pour it into the caramelized pan. You might hear some cracks and pops as the liquid hits the glassy caramel. Seal the pan either with its lid or with foil. If using foil, double it up, seal the edges really well. If you have a large rubber band or some string that’d be a great idea to get a good seal.

steam it up

Gently lower the sealed pan into the water in your instant pot. Use the manual control to cook under high pressure for 14 minutes. After the 14 minutes, allow the pressure to release naturally (NPR) which takes about 10-15 minutes until the pressure pin drops.

(If you’re an Instant Pot newbie, and want a good basic guide, check out How to Instant Pot, a function-based guide cookbook.)

the hard part: waiting

Carefully remove the sealed flan mold from the instant pot, and set it on a rack until it’s cool to the touch. Here’s the hardest part: Put it in the refrigerator, still sealed, overnight. I promise. Technically, you can eat it after 3 hours, but the difference you’ll achieve with overnight resting is totally worth it. Smoother and creamier by far.

the yummy part: serving

When you’re ready to serve, take the lid off and take a long loving whiff of its creamy goodness. if anything looks stuck to the pan, use a knife to gently loosen it. Your serving plate should have a rim to hold in the caramel sauce. Holding the plate firmly upside down on the mold, quickly flip the whole shebang over. You’ll probably hear/feel a little plop as it falls onto the plate. Lift the mold straight up and look at that beautiful caramel on top, and the beautiful sauce around the circumference.

Caramel is easy to clean from the saucepan or flan mold by just letting it dissolve in warm water.

want more?

This recipe doubles easily

For a taller, thicker flan, double the custard ingredients, using 4 instead of 3 eggs. Use the same caramel coating amount.

If you have two pans you can make two traditional low flans by doubling custard as above with the 4 eggs. Double the caramel and split it between the two molds.

The cooking time doesn’t change for either of these because Instant Pot.

This recipe is adapted from OneHappyHousewife.com which seems to be adapted from the recipe on the flan mold’s product page.