Mexican Made Easy: Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Flavor

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup cajeta or caramel sauce, warm
3 (14-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
1 (14-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
1 (14-ounce) can evaporated milk
6 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
teaspoon salt
cup shredded sweetened coconut, toasted

Flan (which, I have to confess, is Spanish, not Mexican) is surprisingly easy to make. The trick is to cook it in a water bath to ensure gentle heat surrounds the custard so it won t break or curdle. There are various methods of infusing coconut flavor into a flan, but coconut milk is the easiest, giving you intense flavor and also a smooth texture. When I first made this recipe, I thought adding shredded coconut to custard would give even more flavor. It does, but it takes away from the velvety texture, so I opt to sprinkle some toasted coconut on the top instead.

1 Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray a Bundt pan with cooking spray and drizzle the cajeta into the pan, turning to coat the bottom and sides.

2 Using an electric mixer, beat the condensed milk, coconut milk, evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla, and salt. Pour the mixture over the cajeta into the Bundt pan. Put the pan inside a roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with warm water to come halfway up the sides of the Bundt pan. Cover the Bundt pan with foil.

3 Bake until the center jiggles slightly when the pan is moved, about 1 hour 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 30 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator and chill for 3 hours or overnight.

4 Turn the flan out onto a platter. Sprinkle with toasted coconut and serve.