Jun 25 2008
Flan de piña or pineapple flan
Print This Post
Published by Laylita at 10:23 am under Central America, Desserts, Europe, Fruit, Kid friendly, Mexico, South America
I enjoy a good flan every now and then, but if it were up to Nicolas we would eat flan every day. I also like to have a change from the classic vanilla flan and add different flavors to the flans. In Ecuador, especially on the coast, it is very common to find flans made with pineapple, coconut, mango, or other fruit. I’ve mentioned before that when I’m cooking for friends I like to make desserts that are relatively low maintenance and that can be made ahead so that I can focus on the appetizers and main meal; flan definitely falls into this category. I used freshly made pure pineapple juice for this flan, you have to strain it and then let the foam rise to the top and remove the foam, but if you are in a hurry you can substitute with a good quality store bought pineapple juice, though you might want to reduce the amount of sugar for the flan if the store bought juice already has sugar. I used whole milk for this pineapple flan because I was out of evaporated milk and it worked just fine, whenever we made any type of flan with my high school friends we always used evaporated milk or condensed milk or a mix of both, I’m not sure why but a lot of Latin American desserts use them, we were talking about this with some friends from Mexico the other day and our guess was that it has something to do with marketing by a certain large Swiss food product company.
This recipe makes about 10 small individual flans, you can also use a large flan mold as well, just adjust the cooking time.
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar, 1 cup for caramel and 1 cup for the flan
½ cup of water
2 ½ cups pure fresh pineapple juice, strained and foam removed, from 1 pineapple
1 tbs tapioca starch – can also use corn starch
1 cup whole milk
10 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs rum
10 buttered oven proof ramekins or flan molds
Large oven proof dish filled with water
Serve with: brown sugar and pineapple slices for caramelized pineapple slices
Preparation:
- To make the caramel, bring 1 cup of sugar and ½ cup of water to a boil over medium heat and boil until it gets a deep amber color, about 8-10 minutes.
- Pour the hot caramel into the previously buttered flan molds or ramekins and try to distribute it evenly on the bottom of the molds.
- Combine the pineapple juice with the sugar and tapioca starch in a small saucepan over low heat and bring to a boil, keep an eye on it as it is prone to boil over, let simmer until it begins to thicken, about 5-8 minutes, remove and cool completely.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F
- Beat the eggs on low speed; slowly mix in the pineapple mixture, the milk, the vanilla, and the rum until well combined
- Strain the flan mixture and pour into the caramel coated molds.
- Place the flan molds in the oven dish with water – the water should cover at least ½ of the height of the ramekins - and bake until the flans solidify, about 45-50 minutes.
- Let the flans cool completely, then refrigerate for a couple of hour.
- To help release the flans place the ramekins in a bowl with warm water before serving to melt the caramel and loosen the flan.
- Serve alone or accompanied by fresh berries or caramelized pineapple slices – pour a spoonful of brown sugar over a pineapple slice and broil until the sugar begins to bubble and caramelize.
De-li-cious! Your flan has me drooling! Really beautiful and mouthwatering!
Cheers,
Rosa
Beautiful! I bookmarked it
Margot
jeez…i haven’t had flan in i-dont-know how long. this recipe and these photos made my day. thanks!
That flan looks really good!
I am very impress with your web site especially the pictures, they are very clear and they help alot in the preparation of the recipes. Thank you. Great Job!
B
Oh my! EVERYTHING on this blog looks delicious! Thanks for all the wonderful recipes.
Paz
Wow! That looks soooo delicious!
Gorgeous texture, and a nice twist.
ohhhhhh, your blog is SO be-aut-i-ful !!!
I saw your entry on blogs’cool about the dum-dum who stole your material - I hope blogger will bring the full weight of punishment down upon their sorry heads.
I am so in awe of your work - the recipes and the photographs - you have truly mastered this blogging caper. Do let me know when your cook-book comes out - I will be first in line!!
Layla, what a beautiful and yummy looking flan! Everything on your blog looks fantastic. You are one talented young lady!
I haven’t been to your blog for a while. Just subscribed to you to read more of your yummy recipes. Keep up the good work!
That flan looks amazing! I have tried many different flans in my life (vanilla, chocolate, coconut, dulce de leche, caramel, orange) but not pineapple yet, now I’m very curious about it!
Hi I love your website, I from Ecuador but I dont know how to cook the food I must tell you my husband is a very happy camper…. thanks a lot
awesome recipes you got. i am from zamboanga a place in the philippines with mix culture of spanish and south american. i’ve been looking all over for new dishes similar to my taste. and i came across your website. wow! everything is delicious and healthy. Thanks
I just saw this page and am thrashing on agony because I do not have the ingredients right now to make it. Cruel…Cruel…Cruel
Laylita, i have started to make the flan and realized that you don’t mention what to do with the milk. Please let me know. thanks so much!
Hi Maria - Oops, add the milk in step #5, I just updated the recipe. Thanks for catching that!
The pineapple flan sounds delicious! I don’t have flan molds so I’m going to try making mini-flans in a silicone muffin tin. I hope it isn’t a total disaster.
this recipe sounds delicious.. but how do i remove juice from a fresh pinapple? Can i substitue canned pineapple juice from concentrate, instead of fresh?
thanks
mari
Hi Mari - Cut a peeled pineapple in small chunks and blend them up until you get a thick puree, then strain and there you have the juice, and yes you can just use canned juice also (just reduce the sugar since it usually has additional sugar).
I made this recipe. A couple of comments:
1) I tried blending and straining the pineapple to get juice…didn’t work. it wouldn’t starin when I used a fine mesh and strained everything when I used a coarser one. So I just used the whole blended pineapple(which surprisingly was exactly 2 1/2 cups!)
2) Tried straining the egg mixture but again was too thick to strain, so just poured it in the ramekins directly.
3) Even though a whole pineapple went in it, it didn’t taste much of pineapple at all…I was kind of disappointed about that.
BUT, apart from all the issues I faced, this was an excellent recipe…so thanks!
My husband and I both enjoyed the flan after dinner tonight and are already looking forward to it for tomorrow’s dinner
AMAZING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is all i have to !!!!!!!!!!!!say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was trying to remember this recipe that has been always “the hit” of my grandmother (she is 94!!!). Now that I am living out of Equador, I miss so much the “flan de piña” that I need to make it at home. Its taste reminds me of my big family, my childhood, everything that I love. Thank you Laylita!!!
p.d. there are more desserts made with condensed milk in Brazil than anywhere else in the world!!!