Best-Ever Flan

1 Heat the oven and prepare ramekins 5 min Preheat the oven to 350 °F and place seven 6 ounce ramekins (or one 9-inch nonstick pan) in a large baking dish and place them somewhere easy to reach.

2 Make caramel 10 min In a small saucepan, mix 1 cup of sugar with ⅓ cup of water. Cook for 8-9 minutes over medium-high heat, occasionally swirling the saucepan but not stirring. Remove from the heat when the mixture has turned a golden caramel color.

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3 Pour caramel into ramekins 5 min Work quickly to divide the caramel between the ramekins. Gently move the ramekins around to coat the inside with the caramel.

4 Combine cream, milk and vanilla 1 min In a large bowl, combine 1¾ cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 1 tsp pure vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.

5 Whisk eggs and sugar 1 min In another large bowl, whisk 3 large eggs and 3 egg yolks together with the remaining ½ a cup of sugar until fully combined.

6 Finish custard 1 min Pour in the cream mixture gradually and mix gently until just combined.

7 Add custard to ramekins 1 min Divide the custard mixture between the ramekins, approximately ½ a cup in each.

8 Add hot water to baking dish 1 min Pour hot water into the baking dish so that it comes halfway to the top of the ramekins. Don’t overfill.

9 Bake 50 min Bake the flans for 45-50 minutes until they are just set. They should jiggle slightly when shaken.

10 Cool and chill 2h Take the ramekins from the oven and place them on a wire rack to cool for about 2 hours.

11 Remove from the ramekins To extract the flans from the ramekins, take a small knife or offset spatula and loosen the edges of the flan carefully. Invert the flan over a serving plate and shake gently until the flan slides out of the ramekin and the caramel pours out on top.

12 Serve Serve the cooled flan topped with the orange whipped cream and a garnish of orange zest if you wish.