5 Healthy Low-Calorie Flan Recipes and Tips for the Newbie

Flan is a dreamy, creamy dessert. You bake a custard over caramelized sugar. When the baking dish is reversed, you have the smooth, soft custard covered in syrup. Flan is known and loved all over Latin America, and now, in the States.

It’s said that the ancient Romans invented flan, but it was probably a favorite dessert long before their cooks noted the recipe down. It’s not a hard recipe, and a few simple ingredients will make it.

We offer a variety of reduced-calorie flans, but you must take into consideration that flan will never be a serious dieter’s dessert.

Low-Sugar Mexican Flan

This recipe is relatively low in calories and fat.

Prep time: 30 mins
Total time: 5 hours 5 mins
Yield: 6 servings
Servings size: 1 custard cup
202 calories per serving

Ingredients:

⅓ cup of sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 (12-ounce) can of evaporated milk (1 ½ cups)
⅓ cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325°F.

Make the caramel

• In an 8-inch heavy skillet, cook ⅓ cup sugar over medium-high heat until sugar starts to melt, shaking the skillet occasionally to heat sugar evenly. Do not stir.
• Once the sugar starts to melt, reduce heat to low. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes or until all the sugar is melted and golden brown.
• Immediately divide caramelized sugar among six 6-ounce custard cups. Tilt cups to coat the bottom evenly. Be very careful; hot sugar burns.

Make the custard

• In a medium bowl combine eggs, evaporated milk, ⅓ cup sugar, and vanilla.
• Place custard cups in a 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
• Divide the egg mixture among the custard cups. Cover the custard cups with foil.
• Place a baking pan on the oven rack.
• Heat water in a kettle. Pour the hot water into the baking pan, surrounding the custard cups, to a depth of about ½ inch.
• Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center of each flan comes out clean. The custard may still be a bit jiggly.
• Remove cups from water. Cool on the wire rack.
• Cover and chill for 4 to 24 hours.
• Before serving, slip a knife around the custard in the cups. Top each cup with a dessert plate. Turn the plate and cup over so that the flan will fall on the plate.
• Lift the cups up away from the flans. Spoon any caramelized sugar that remains in cups on top.

Healthy flan

Here you use coconut or muscovado sugar

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Servings: 12

Ingredients:

Custard
4 cups skim milk
6 eggs
⅔ cups coconut or muscovado sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Caramel

⅓ cup coconut or muscovado sugar
2 tablespoons water

Instructions:

For the caramel

• Heat a pan briefly at low heat on the stove. Add the sugar and water.
• Do not stir.
• When the sugar melts and turns an amber brown, remove from the heat.
• Pour the caramel into molds or ramekins.

For the custard

• Cook the milk with the sugar, stirring very often until all the sugar is dissolved. Allow it to cool.
• In another bowl beat the eggs together with the vanilla. Mix this with the cooled milk.
• Pour the custard mixture over the caramel syrup.
• Heat water in a kettle. Pour the hot water into the baking pan, surrounding the custard cups, to a depth of about ½ inch.
• Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center of each flan comes out clean.
• Lift the flans out of the water bath and allow them to cool down. Chill in the refrigerator at least 4 hours or overnight.

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Honey Flan

This recipe requires raw honey instead of caramelized syrup.

224 calories per serving
You will need 6 custard cups or ramekins of 6-oz. Capacity

Ingredients:

10 tablespoons raw honey
2 ¼ cups whole milk
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Spoon 1 tablespoon of the honey in each of the custard cups. Place in the freezer for 5 minutes.
• Whisk and combine thoroughly the milk, eggs, vanilla, salt and remaining 4 tablespoons honey.
• Strain the custard through a fine wire-mesh strainer into the custard cups. Straining the mixture prevents lumps in the flan.
• Place custard cups in a 13-by- 9-inch baking dish. Pour boiling water to a depth of ¾ inch into the dish.
• Bake until custards are almost set, about 35 minutes.
• Cool the flans for 30 minutes. Cover them and refrigerate between 4 hours and overnight.
• Run a knife between each flan and its cup to loosen it. Turn the cups over onto serving plates.

Real Healthy Flan

This recipe uses an exotic ingredient: yacon syrup. It’s sweet but sugar-free, derived from a Peruvian root vegetable. You can order it online.
SERVES 4

Ingredients:

¼ cup Yacon Syrup
4 eggs
¼ cup raw honey
1 can coconut milk, full fat
⅛ teaspoon of sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Dash of ground cinnamon

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Pour the yacon syrup evenly into 4 ramekins.
• Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl.
• In a small skillet heat the coconut milk, raw honey, salt, vanilla and cinnamon. Bring a boil, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat.
• Whisk the egg mixture slowly into the coconut mixture. Add the eggs to the coconut mix a tablespoon at a time, to prevent them from cooking and curdling.
• Divide the mixture between the 4 ramekins.
• Place the ramekins in a small baking dish and fill the dish with water up to the center of the ramekins. Bake for 40 minutes until the top of the flan is golden.
• Remove the ramekins from the baking dish and let them sit till they’re at room temperature.
• Chill for 2 hours or overnight.

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Low-Fat Pumpkin Flan

An autumn flan, using low-fat milk. You will need 8 ramekins of 5 ½ oz. capacity

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Chill time: 4 hours
Yield: 8 servings
259.3 calories per serving

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups white sugar
2 tablespoons water
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
1 pinch ground allspice
1 pinch ground mace
⅓ cup white sugar
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 ¾ cups low-fat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons hulled toasted pumpkin seeds

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 300°F.
• Whisk 1 ¼ cups sugar and the water in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir until dark amber, about 10 minutes.
• Divide the caramel equally between the ramekins.
• Whisk eggs, cinnamon, salt, cloves, ginger, allspice, mace, and ⅓ cup sugar together in a large bowl.
• Beat in pumpkin puree until the mix is smooth.
• Heat milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it simmers. Remove from heat.
• Stir the vanilla extract into the milk. Strain hot milk mixture into the egg mixture, adding the milk a little at a time. Whisk to form a thin custard.
• Divide the custard evenly among the ramekins.
• Fill the baking dish with hot water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

• Cover the baking dish with foil.
• Bake until the flan is set but still a little wobbly, 45 to 50 minutes.
• Remove ramekins from hot water. Allow to cool completely. Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least four hours.
• To loosen the flan, run a knife around the inside edge of each ramekin. Place a dessert plate over each and turn them over so the flan will slide out, covered in caramel syrup.

Low-Fat Flan

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:

⅔ cup sugar
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
1 ¼ cups skim milk
1 cup fat-free egg substitute
1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
⅛ teaspoon salt

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 325°.
• Place sugar in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring, 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Immediately pour into a 9-inch round cake pan, tipping it around until the syrup coats bottom of
• Combine condensed milk with the skim milk, egg substitute, vanilla extract and salt. Stir until smooth.
• Pour custard over the syrup in the cake pan.
• Place cake pan in a large shallow baking pan; add hot water to a depth of 1 inch.
• Bake at 325° for 35 to 40 minutes or until barely set.
• Remove the cake pan from water, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
• Cover and chill for at least 3 hours.
• To loosen the flan, run a knife around the inside edge of the cake pan. Place a serving plate over the pan and turn to flip them over so the flan will slide out, covered in caramel syrup.
• Drizzle any caramelized syrup in the cake pan over the custard.

Tips:
To keep the caramelized sugar syrup fluid, add a ¼ teaspoon lemon juice to the sugar and water before beginning to cook it.
You can make the caramel in the microwave. Put a cup of sugar in a Pyrex measuring cup. Mix 2 tablespoons of water into the sugar. Microwave on high for 5 minutes.