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A Dessert Like an Island Paradise

At our first boules game in late spring, we played at Stacie and Tim Boyd’s house in Old Lyme. It wasn’t the first game since last year, of course; we’d missed all of last year because of the pandemic. And we didn’t have our usual holiday party, which gives us a chance to see our winter clothes and untanned faces.

Our first 2021 league play included the sit-down dinner and it may have been some the best food ever. Dessert was baked caramel custard, also called flan. While that pudding, something the English refer to as nursery food, requires few ingredients and sounds simple enough, a few mistakes can make it bitter and difficult to get out of the pan.

The recipe below is not the recipe Stacie used, but I was unable to read the instructions, scanned from a large cookbook in which the ingredients were in fancy type and the instructions blurred off the page. In addition, Stacie made enough for close to 50 people. Her flan was very delicious and, when unmolded onto lovely platters, looked like an island paradise in creamy white ringed with golden sand.

This recipe, from Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts, was published in 1994. I have had my problems making caramel some years ago, but I love this recipe and it will give you a sure-fire dessert, maybe as tasty and as pretty as Stacie’s.

Lee White of Old Lyme has been a food editor and restaurant reviewer for more than 25 years. You can email her at leeawhite@aol.com.

Cuban Caramel Custard

From Richard Sax, Classic Home Dessert (Chapters, Shelburne, VT, 1994)

Serves 6 to 8

1 ¼ cups sugar

1/3 cup water

Juice of one lemon

4 eggs

4 egg yolks

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine sugar, water, and lemon juice in a nonreactive saucepan and cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Boil syrup, uncovered, without stirring, until it thickens slightly and reaches 225 degrees on a candy thermometer, usually around 7 minutes. Pour all but about ¼ cup of syrup into a heatproof bowl; set aside to cool. Meanwhile preheat oven to 250 degrees with rack in the center/

Continue to cook the reserved ¼ cup syrup, without stirring, until it turns medium amber, 3 to 5 minutes. Immediately pour caramel into an 8-inch or 10- by 6-inch rectangular baking dish, tilting the dish to coat the bottom evenly. Set aside.

Add eggs, yolks, and vanilla to the bowl of cooled syrup, whisking until blended. Place baking dish into a roasting pan; pour custard mixture into the caramel-lined dish.

Place roasting pan on the center rack of the oven. Pour in enough hot tap water to reach halfway up the sides of the baking dish. Bake until custard is almost set but still quite liquid in the center (it will firm as it cools), about 25 minutes. Remove from water bath and cool the custard on a wire rack.

Chill custard until cold, at least 2 hours. Run the tip of a knife along the edge of the custard and unmold onto a serving plate so the caramel is up. Serve in small portions.