By David Tanis
- Total Time
- 1½ hours, plus at least 2 hours’ chilling
- Rating
- 4(92)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Winter is the time for citrus fruits — tangerines, clementines, grapefruit and oranges. The most exciting orange variety may well be the blood orange. Well known in the Mediterranean, blood oranges are now grown in California and Florida as well. The ruby red juice has great visual appeal. In this flan, the burnt sugar caramel helps balance their sweet, somewhat tropical flavor.
Featured in: Reversal of Good Fortune
or to save this recipe.
Print Options
Advertisem*nt
Ingredients
Yield:6 servings
- ½cup sugar
- 2tablespoons blood orange juice, from about ½ orange
- 2cups half-and-half
- 1wide strip lemon peel, removed with a peeler
- 2wide strips blood orange peel, removed with a peeler
- ½teaspoon coriander seeds
- 6cardamom pods, crushed
- ½teaspoon fennel seeds
- ¼cup sugar
- 2drops pure vanilla extract
- ½cup blood orange juice, from 2 to 3 medium oranges
- 3large eggs
- ¾cup sugar
- ½cup blood orange juice, from 2 to 3 medium oranges
For the Caramel Layer
For the Custard
For the Blood Orange Caramel Sauce (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
358 calories; 12 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 59 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 57 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 70 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered by
Preparation
Step
1
Make the caramel layer: Have ready 6 four-ounce ramekins. Put sugar and ½ cup water in a wide saucepan over medium-high heat. Let mixture simmer without stirring until water has evaporated and sugar begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Shake pan and continue cooking until sugar is quite brown and beginning to burn. Off heat, carefully add 2 tablespoons blood orange juice. Stir with long-handled spoon to incorporate, then pour or spoon some of the caramel into bottom of each ramekin, dividing evenly. Caramel should set. (This can be done several hours ahead.)
Step
2
Make the custard: Warm the half-and-half over medium heat in a saucepan until hot but not boiling. Add lemon peel, orange peel, coriander seeds, cardamom pods and fennel seeds. Add sugar and vanilla extract and stir to dissolve. Turn off heat and let mixture steep for at least 15 minutes. Whisk in blood orange juice.
Step
3
Beat eggs in a mixing bowl. Temper the eggs by slowly whisking 1 cup of warm half-and-half mixture into the mixing bowl. Pour contents of mixing bowl back into the saucepan and combine with remaining half-and-half. Strain into a wide-mouth pitcher with spout.
Step
4
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Pour strained custard mixture into prepared ramekins, filling each to the top. Place ramekins in a roasting pan in a single layer and add hot water to the pan to reach halfway up sides of ramekins. Cover pan with foil and bake until custards have set, 30 to 45 minutes. To test custards, insert a paring knife. It should come out clean, and custard should not be wiggly. Remove from pan and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate ramekins, covered with plastic wrap, for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Step
5
Make the blood orange caramel sauce (if desired): Simmer sugar and ½ cup water in a wide saucepan over medium heat. When water has evaporated and sugar begins to brown, swirl pan until caramel is very dark, almost burned. Off heat, carefully add ½ cup blood orange juice and stir well to dissolve caramel. Pour sauce into a serving pitcher. Cover and leave at room temperature until you are ready to serve (or chill if you are leaving it overnight).
Step
6
Remove ramekins from refrigerator 15 minutes before serving. To serve, run a small knife around the inside edge of each ramekin to loosen custard. Invert ramekin over a shallow soup bowl or dessert plate. Carefully remove ramekin to reveal a custard topped with a caramel layer. Serve with blood orange caramel sauce, if desired.
Ratings
4
out of 5
92
user ratings
Your rating
or to rate this recipe.
Have you cooked this?
or to mark this recipe as cooked.
Private Notes
Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.
Cooking Notes
Wendy
In reading Mary Beth's comment, I am disappointed that this may not work out well - wonder if its best to use a tried and true basic flan recipe (this one sounds too overworked) but use the blood orange for the caramel layer and the sauce.
Mary Beth
I've made this twice. Carefully. And each time the custard ended up rather loose and sort of curdled looking when unmolded.
Andy
I didn’t add any juice to the cream mixture, for fear of curdling. Question: I’ve learned that when a custard is set, it jiggles AND a knife comes out clean. But the done flan is not supposed to jiggle here? Does it jiggle if you cook it too much or too little? When I cooked 40 minutes with 4 ounce cups, they were definitely over cooked. Caramel and sauce were good.
Curdled Mess
I made this twice in 2 days and it came out like sweet scrambled eggs BOTH times - disgusting! His tangerine flan recipe is excellent, so I don't know why this one is so bad.
onetryonly
The mixture curdled when the juice was added. For a good flan it should remain smooth. Disappointed in this recipe or lack of detailed explanation for step 3
Susan
I don't know about you, but the blood orange juice in the custard turned its color gray! So the sprightly yellow in the picture accompanying the recipe is unrealistic. My blood oranges were far from sweet, and maybe I burnt the caramel (though it looked fine), because the flan was bitter. I compensated with maple whipped cream. So no, not a success.
XJ
My first try also curdled after baking (but did not curdle after adding orange juice into the milk mixture). I changed baking temperature to 325 F, used hot tap water instead of boiling water, and baked around 40 min. Then the texture came out mostly smooth, w/ only a few tiny holes on the sides of the flans.
Erika
I made this, using a recipe from SaltyCocina. Since so many said they couldn't taste the spices, I doubled them. In retrospect, I would have doubled the fennel, but not the cardamom. Yummy tasting otherwise, even my toddler enjoyed it.
Tess
I concur with Wendy. We loved the flavor of this flan but really disliked the texture. It had more of a wet scrambled egg feel to the dish. I'm going with a tried and true form and creamy flan but will use this caramel.
Patricia
I did not make this flan, but I did make the blood orange sauce to go with a hazelnut cake (the cake called for poached pears but I had the wrong variety). I wanted something fruity. Unfortunately the blood oranges are too bitter despite the sugar syrup. Some liked it (my 11-year old grandson and my husband) and others did not — could be simply a matter of taste buds. I’ll try the sauce again with a different variety of orange.
Ann
Made this for quarantine Thanksgiving and while delicious, after three hours of labor, I was disappointed by the texture. The custard curdled when I added the orange juice, even though I made sure it was 160 degrees (per a commenter's suggestion) when I added it. This made straining the custard arduous but I soldiered on, hoping that squeezing the curdled cream through the sieve would smooth out the texture. If the editors could address this issue, I'd be tempted to try again.
Ann
This took four hours and was a disappointment. The flavors were amazing but I would try a different flan recipe next time.
Carolina
I have a suggestion for those who are having issues with the milk curdling, using this recipe from Epicurious - Honey-Lemon Custard with Fruit, they recommend having the cream/milk temperature to 160F before adding the lemon juice, and it works. The acid will not curdle the milk at that temperature.
Monique
I’ve made this once- it’s spectacular! I had to cook it 15 minutes longer than recommended, possibly because I used a toaster oven.
Tracy
I had a hard time making the sauce with the fruit juice – it was way too hard. But the flan itself was great. I tend to prefer subtler flavors, so I think next time I will skip the sauce altogether.
Frankie R
Unlike Mary Beth, both times Ive made this flan it has set perfectly. This flan is meant to be made in 4 oz ramekins, the smallest ones I’ve found, anything larger and it will not set properly. My one complaint is that the blood orange is lost in the cardamom and just comes off as tart. Thats fine, but really is a failure to showcase one of the main ingredients.
sabra
Mine also curdled, although it tasted delicious. I found that when I added the orange juice to the caramelized sugar [off burner] the mixture burned a lot more.
Private notes are only visible to you.
