Pumpkin Flan

It's a pie, no it's a cake, no it's FLAN!

This adventure began late one afternoon in the UP after we finished our daily snow shoe. Looking through the cabinets, I came upon a can of pumpkin. The following conversation unfolded:

Me: Mom you know you have canned pumpkin?
Mom: Yeah.
Me: What are you going to use it for?
Mom: Pumpkin flan.
Me: Oh why not pumpkin pie?
Mom: You don't need to make a crust for flan.

I should have know that her answer would be so simple.. Who has the time to bother with making a crust? Everyone knows that the most important part of a pie is the filling anyway, so might as well just skip the crust and go straight for the good part. We don't mess around in the Clement household.

So thus began my quest to find a pumpkin flan recipe. I searched through every page of every cook book in the house and then tirelessly searched the world wide web. Like a sailor spotting the faint glow from a lighthouse on a stormy night, I finally found the perfect recipe. A pumpkin flan recipe by the one, the only, the Martha Stewart.

Pumpkin Flan
Ingredient:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light-brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup cooked pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups half-and-half or cream (we used whipping cream)
5 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Put the granulated sugar in a 9-inch cake pan or pie plate, set on the center rack in the oven, and bake until the sugar is caramel colored, 8 to 12 minutes. Swirl to cover the bottom of the pie plate with the caramel.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.
4. Stir in pumpkin puree.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, and vanilla.
6. Thoroughly blend the egg mixture into the pumpkin puree.
7. Set the pie plate in a large roasting pan, and pour the custard over the caramel.
8. Carefully pour enough hot tap water into the roasting pan to reach halfway up the sides of the pie plate.
9. Bake until the custard is set, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cool and chill in the refrigerator. 10. Run a knife around the outside edge of the flan and invert it onto a rimmed plate.
11. Whip the heavy cream until desired consistency
12. Cut into wedges or scoop and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.



Well to continue this pumpkin flan adventure, of course I forgot one of Martha's steps. I didn't put the pie plate in a roasting pan and fill it with water. Also the 9-inch pie plate that I used did not hold all of the liquid. So needless to say, my flan over flowed while cooking and got all over the bottom of the oven. A few choice words may have been heard from the kitchen. I ended up putting aluminum foil on the rack below the flan to catch any falling debris. However, the bottom of the oven was already covered. That was a joy to clean up the following morning. Despite a few hiccups along the way, I must say that in the end the pumpkin flan was a success.