{Sweet Recipes} Pumpkin Flan (Flan de Calabaza) ~ Kroma Design Studio

Fall is in the Air and pumpkins are everywhere! Therefore, I thought I'd share one of my very own personal recipes that would make a great dessert for any party around this time of the year...a pumpkin spiced flan.

Pumpkin Spiced Flan Recipe

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of sugar (Divide 1 cup separate, for step 1 -and- the other 1 cup, for step 2)
- 1 can of evaporated milk (12 oz. can)
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 pack of Cream Cheese (8 oz.), softened
- 5 eggs
- 3/4 cup of 100% pure canned pumpkin
- 1/8 of salt
- 1/8 of cinnamon
- 1/4 cup of water (for step 1)
- 1/4 cup of chopped pecans

*NOTE: The best option for baking a flan in my opinion is using a round shaped corningware (as shown below).

DIRECTIONS:
*HEAT oven to 350°F.

Step 1: Prep your Caramel Base

Get 1 cup of sugar and wet it with about a little less than 1/4 cup of water. squeeze fresh lemon or lime juice into it. Then stir and mix it once, before applying it to the heat. Place the mix into a sauce pan on medium heat and leave it alone to melt, until you see clear liquid bubbles starting to form. Once the mix is caramelized (be very careful and try not to get burned here), while hot drip it into the bottom base of your corningware.

Step 2: BLEND BATTER MIX

In a Blender or Magic Bullet, combine the evaporated milk, condensed milk, softened cream cheese, remaining 1 cup of sugar, 3/4 cups of canned pumpkin, salt, and cinnamon; blend well. Taste batter with a spoon to see if it tastes good; otherwise, add more cinnamon or sugar to your taste. Lastly, add in the 5 eggs to the mix and blend again. Pour this blended mix over the syrup in your corningware; cover with foil. Place your corningware in a larger pan (roasting pans are great) filled with water halfway.

Step 3: BAKE

Bake the mix for about 1 hour and 25 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Remove flan from water-filled pan; place on wire rack. Cool completely. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight (best results).

Step 4: SERVE YOUR FLAN

Take your flan out of the fridge and run a knife around the edge (making it unstick from the corningware sides). Then place the corningware into a larger pan with warm water for about 10 minutes. Find a deep plate to serve the flan on and flip it upside down carefully so that it does not break apart or crack; caramel will drizzle out.

Step 5: DECORATE

Crush your pecans into smaller pieces to garnish your flan; sprinkle slightly over the center of the flan.

Enjoy! :)