What's for dessert?

Wonderful flan with cinnamon accents from Mexican Flavors, Contemporary Recipes from Camp San Miguel (Andrews McMeel, August 2014) by Hugh Carpenter, Teri Sandison.

Flan with Cinnamon Accents

Makes twelve 4-ounce ramekins

This wonderful flan is based on a recipe that San Miguel de Allende pastry chef Paco Cardenas taught our cooking class. You can make the flan 24 hours in advance, and then unmold it before dinner guests arrive. Serve it chilled, by itself or with fresh berries.

1 ½ cups sugar
6 ounces cream cheese, cut into 6 pieces, at room temperature
2 cups whole milk
1 cup condensed milk
6 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, preferably Mexican
¼ teaspoon salt
Fresh berries and/or raspberries or strawberries (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Do not stir the sugar.

Heat until the sugar turns a caramel color around the edges of the saucepan. Then stir the sugar. Continue stirring until all the sugar melts and turns a caramel color without any grainy texture.

Pour the sauce into the bottoms of twelve 4-ounce ramekins. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.
In a blender, place the cream cheese, milk, condensed milk, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Puree until liquefied. Pour into the ramekins.

Place the ramekins in a roasting pan, and carefully add hot tap water to a depth of 1 inch. Transfer the roasting pan to the oven, and bake the flans for 40 to 45 minutes. They are done when you gently shake a ramekin and the custard does not wobble. Remove the pan from the oven. When cool enough to handle, remove the ramekins from the water bath. Then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

To serve, run a paring knife around the inside of each ramekin to help loosen the flan. Pour 1 inch of water into a 12-inch frying pan. Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat. Dip each ramekin into the water for 15 seconds to loosen the flan. Then invert onto a serving plate. This can be done 24 hours in advance of serving, with the flans kept refrigerated. Just before serving, add fresh berries outside of each ramekin.

(* Recipe reproduced with permission from Mexican Flavors, Contemporary Recipes from Camp San Miguel -Andrews McMeel, August 2014- by Hugh Carpenter, Photographs by Teri Sandison)