Stovetop Caramel Flan (Quesillo)

5 from 2 votes

Stovetop Caramel Flan (Quesillo)

Quesillo is a delicious Venezuelan dessert known in other parts of the world as crème caramel. This flan is made with five ingredients: sugar, eggs, condensed milk, vanilla extract, and milk.

Servings: people

Ingredients

Caramel Sauce

1 cup water
1 cup white sugar

Quesillo Flan

8 whole eggs
28 ounces canned condensed milk
28 ounces whole milk use the condensed milk cans to measure it
⅛ cup white sugar
2 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon sea salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Caramel Sauce

In a saucepan, add the white sugar and water. Bring to a boil without stirring. Watch it carefully. Once it turns medium gold, pour it directly into a cake pan and swirl it around to coat the pan. Act quickly before it hardens! One tip to help with this step is to pre-heat the cake pan. This gives you a little more time to swirl the caramel around the pan.

Quesillo Flan

Add the eggs, white sugar, condensed milk, whole milk, and vanilla extract in a blender. Pulse on high until combined.
Pour the liquid mixture into the caramel lined cake pan. Tightly wrap aluminum foil on top of the cake pan, pressing the edges firmly.
Place the cake pan into a larger diameter pot. Boil some water in a kettle or separate pot. Pour the boiling water until the water reaches 75% up the side of the cake pan. Cover the large diameter pot. Boil for about an hour. Every 20 minutes replenish the boiled off water. Heat water with a kettle and replenish so the water bath doesn't run dry. For the oven method see note 5.
Remove the cake pan from the hot water and let it refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours. Once the flan is cold, remove the foil. Place a large flat surface on top, and flip the flan 180 degrees. The flan should easily flip onto the surface. If the flan is not flipping, allow it to cool in the fridge for a little bit longer.

Notes

There are two methods to make this flan recipe: oven or stovetop. I prefer the oven because the flan comes out smoother. You can use a larger diameter pot or pan if baking in the oven.
There are flan pans that are quite helpful when making this recipe. They are not absolutely necessary, though, if you don't have any on hand.
The caramel hardens quickly. Heat the cake pan in the oven before swirling the caramel to give yourself more time. The caramel should coat the entire pan. This ensures that the flan won't stick when you flip it over.
Variations: Add some salt to make this a salted caramel flan. Traditional flan uses cow's milk. If you'd like a dairy-free substitute, use coconut milk.
Oven method (creme caramel): Place the foil-covered cake pan (or flan pan) in a water bath with boiled water up to 50% of the edge of the pan. Bake at 350 ℉ (175 ℃) for 75 minutes. Add boiling water to refill the water bath about halfway through the bake.
Store this quesillo Venezuelan flan recipe in the fridge for up to five days. I do not recommend freezing it.

Nutrition