Chocolate Caramel Flan with Cashew Nut Praliné

A seven minute frosting and two swiss meringue buttercream batches later, I had left over egg yolks.

Since I’ve been very unsuccessful on freezing yolks in the past (they turned out hard and “cooked”), I decided to use them right away.

I  have this recipe since  forever in my recipe notes and, if you have six yolks looking at you like me, it’s totally worth the trouble.

The original flan is called “Brigadeirão”, and it’s covered with chocolate jimmies to resemble the famous brigadeiro candy. I made a more grown up version, with caramel sauce and cashew praliné to garnish.

Brigadeirão (one large 20cm pudding or four small 10cm)

• 1 1/2 cups sugar (for the caramel)
• 2 cans sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup whole milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 2 1/2 tbsp dark cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp. butter

Caramelize the pans (I used 4 round 10cm cake pans, the traditional recipe asks for a 20 cm bundt cake pan, but feel free as a bird!):

Cook the sugar in a saucepan until it’s melted and light amber in color. While it’s hot, pour the caramel in the pans and try to distribute it  in the bottom and sides of pans with a wooden spoon, before it hardens. Set aside.

You can skip the caramel step altogether, buttering the pans and generously sprinkling them with sugar, if you want, but I strongly recommend it, for the taste and the beauty!

Preheat the oven 400 F. Place there a large rimmed baking sheet and fill halfway through with hot water.

In the blender, place all the remaining ingredients and beat on high speed until well blended. That’s it. Pour the mixture distributing between the pans and cover with foil. Place the pans in the baking sheet and bake for 2 hours, or until it’s slightly firm. If the water dries in the meantime, complete with more.

Let cool and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Run a knife through the flan sides to lose it, say a prayer and turn the flan in a plate. Serve cold on it’s own or make the praliné.

Cashew Praliné

• 1/2 cup cashew nuts, coarsely broken in pieces
• 1 cup sugar

Grease a baking sheet with cooking spray or vegetable oil. Distribute the broken cashew nuts. Again, melt the sugar in a saucepan until amber in color. Let drop the caramel over the cashew nuts, forming designs. Let cool, broke in large pieces and garnish the flan.

Next post: one more recipe for left over egg yolks…

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