BityBite

Anyone that knows me will tell you that I'm a little obsessed with flan or créme caramel. I have always liked it, but I didn't become obsessed with it till I ate at Bouchon in Yountville and had Thomas Keller's créme caramel. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It wasn't too sweet and was rich in flavor and color. Perfect amber color and just firm enough to hold its shape, but also delicate enough to melt in your mouth.


Anyways, to most people these two are interchangeable and mean the same thing, but there are difference and mean different things in certain regions of the world. According to wiki, overall it is a rich custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to créme brûlée, which is custard with a hard caramel top. In latin countries, flan mean créme caramel, but in European countries, flan usually means a custard tart with fruit toppings.


With the fruit stuff aside, I'm going to tell you what the difference is in my mind. I also relate créme caramel with europe and flan with latin countries, but there also a difference in taste and texture. To keep things simple, I'm going to refer to this custard dessert as créme caramel.


Texture is easy. Every latin-spanish related créme caramel (also known as Leche Flan), I've every had has always been very firm and rough with lots of bubbles. Taste wise, it is overly sweet and the caramel is usually very dark brown color. But what I like about it, is it has a strong and distinctive egg flavor. When you eat it, you know that it is a custard made from eggs and not anything else.


European versions are smooth, delicate and rarely with bubbles, which I like. Most of the time the caramel is a light yellowish color and not as sweet. The custard is more milky tasting rather than egg tasting.


My goal is to find the perfectly balance of the things I like- the eggy taste and the delicate, smooth texture, but not too sweet. Anywhere and everywhere, if I see it I have the urge to try it. So this brings me to why I bring this up. I was in Whole Foods the other day looking for cream and sitting there was a small package for Flan. So I got all excited and purchased it.

I went home and open it up. I had great potential. I looked smooth thru the container and had good dark color. I turn it out onto a plate and the caramel itself was rather light. I take a scoop and it's pretty delicate, but still a bit firmer than I like (I'm nit picking here). Then I bite into it and there was no egg flavor. It's not that sweet, which was good, but there was no egg flavor which is critical and interestingly enough there wasn't a milk flavor either. Upon closer inspection, it leads me to believe that it is made with some sort of gelatin. It has the firmness of jello does. It jiggles, but still holds its shape really well. A true custard, would start breaking. So the search continues to find the perfect créme caramel so that I may have it readily available when I want.

Very Firm

No Bubbles though

No Bubbles though