Recipe: Mini Cream Cheese Flans

This recipe for Mini Cream Cheese Flans is so quick and easy to prepare that you’ll want to make this often. This sweet little dessert is a cross between a flan and a cheesecake. We tasted it warm, before refrigerating it as the recipe instructs, and found the taste to be more “flan like”. After refrigerating it, it definitely reminds me of a cheesecake. Either way you can’t go wrong.. it’s simply delicious.

They unmold perfectly and make a terrific presentation… a perfect finish to a special dinner or for guests.

The recipe comes from the people at Nestle, it was in a soft cover book of theirs titled, Make it Simple Entertaining.

I made no changes other than they make the caramel from scratch. I didn’t bother to do that… making it from scratch can be tricky and I wanted to cut the prep time down too… so I used a jar of Smucker’s Caramel Ice Cream Sauce. You need about a coffee teaspoon of caramel in the bottom of each custard cup.

TIPS

The original baking instructions say to bake them for 35-45 minutes, mine took 50 minutes and my oven is accurate… so I changed the time range… insert a knife in the middle and when it comes out clean .. they’re done.

I had only one baking pan deep enough to stand these in … so I baked them in batches… I just put the blender in the fridge while the first batch was baking… when it was time to prepare the second batch, I just gave it a quick whirl again and poured it into the remaining custard cups.

Definitely try these… they are oh so yummy!







Recipe: Mini Cream Cheese Flans

All you need:

Caramel Ice Cream Sauce
1 (12 oz.) can of Carnation Evaporated Milk
1 (14 oz.) can Carnation Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 (8 oz.) package Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese, softened and cut-up
4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, softened and cut-up
5 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

All you need to do:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat some water in a tea kettle to very hot not boiling.


Place 12 (6 ounce) custard cups in two 13 x 9 baking pans.

Place about a coffee teaspoon of caramel sauce in the bottom of each custard cup.
(remember a coffee teaspoon is much larger than a measuring teaspoon).





Place remaining ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.







Pour the mixture into the custard cups.





Place the baking pans in the oven and carefully pour the hot water around the custard cups.. about an inch deep.

Bake for 35-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove the pans from the oven and place them on racks. Allow the flans to cool in the pan for 20 minutes.



Remove the flans from the pans and refrigerate for several hours or over night.







To serve, run a sharp knife around the rim and invert over a plate. Shake gently to loosen.