Making the Perfect Caramel
Making a caramel can be quite scary. So many things can go wrong: it can crystallize into a powdery inedible mess, or turn into dark, bitter sludge in an instant. The best way to avoid these is to make a sort of fortified caramel that’ll need less cooking and won’t crystallize as easily.
Instead of making a straight up classic caramel with white sugar and a sprinkling of water, use half white sugar and half brown sugar and drizzle some honey, corn syrup or glucose over it instead of water. The brown sugar adds a deep butterscotch flavor to the mix, making it perfectly okay to undercook your caramel just a little and makes it easier to avoid burning everything. Adding syrups such as honey and light corn syrup helps to prevent crystallization as the syrups are invert sugars that don’t easily crystallize.
No Bubbles, Please
Every leche flan’s worst enemy is bubbles. The more bubbles there are in the custard before it sets, the lumpier the end product will be. In order to minimize the air introduced to the custard, mix the ingredients gently with a wooden spoon or whisk and only until everything is combined and homogenous. Before pouring the custard into the containers with the caramel, skim the bubbles from the top to make sure that no bubbles get into your precious flan.
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