Is love a thick, rich flan?

"Or is love a big red apple, and you don’t know
whether to bite into it - and you knock on wood
and call off your luck numbers and hold your breath -
and you put your teeth into it and get a mouthful,
tasting all there is to it,
and whether it’s sweet and wild
or a dry mush you want to spit out,
it’s something else than you expected,
I’m asking, sir, is love a big red apple?"

from Little Word, Little White Bird by Carl Sandburg

The same question can be asked about many foods.

Is love a white peach? As dry and tasteless as a cereal box or lively and vivacious as a dancing toddler?

Or is love a flan? ". . . watery and spongy, and tasting a little like a sponge, too. . . . or thick and rich. . .?" (Paraphrased from Margaret of Finnegan Begin Again's post about flan)

Yes, Carl Sandburg could have just as easily waxed poetic about the uncertainty of love and flan.

He also could have, as Margaret did, continued on about the difficulty of finding a good flan (apparently, a good man and a good flan are both hard to find) and the complex task of making one at home (the flan, that is, not the man).

That's when I remembered the thickest, richest, yummiest flan I have ever tasted. I devoured it at a dinner party more than a year ago and asked the hostess for the recipe. I had completely forgotten about that decadent flan until now.

As it turns out, this easy flan is far from authentic. Flan fans may turn up their noses and hit the "x" button as soon as they see sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese among the ingredients.

But isn't that just like love? Sometimes it's not authentic or the "real thing," but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy every delicious bite.

Is Love a Flan? Flan

3/4 - 1 cup white sugar
1 14oz can of condensed milk
1 12oz can of evaporated milk
4 whole eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz. cream cheese

To make the "caramel," melt the sugar in a sauce pan over low to medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar liquefies. Pour into flan pan (or cake pan). Turn the pan around so that some of the sugar coats the edges of the pan a little way up the sides. Set aside.

"What? Are ya' made of sugar? Are you gonna' melt?" YES!

Work quickly to swirl the melted sugar around the pan. It hardens quickly.

In a blender, combine the next five ingredients until they are thoroughly combined. Pour the flan into pan and cover with aluminum foil.

Set a larger pan with about an inch of water in the oven and put the flan pan inside that pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until a knife inserted in the middle of the flan comes out clean.

Cool the flan and then refrigerate until ready to serve. To serve, loosen the edges of the flan with a rubber spatula (or knife) and invert onto a serving plate.

Notes:
- This was my first time "melting" sugar. At first, I felt like I'd poured a cup of sand into the pot and expected it to liquefy. But the sugar turned to amber liquid in a matter of minutes.
- I tried combining the flan ingredients in my mixer, but the cream cheese doesn't break down enough. Pull out that blender.
- I forgot to cover the pan with aluminum foil, and the top (which becomes the bottom) became a little hard.
- The directions say to bake for one hour, but it was nowhere near done after an hour. Other recipes say 1 1/2 hours, and this is more accurate.
- I was afraid that it would be hard to pry the flan out of the pan, but it slips right out.
- Be careful about centering the flan on the plate when you invert because once it's there, it won't budge.

Now go ahead and dance the "flandango."

I submitted this recipe to Regional Recipes, a food blogging event created by Darlene of Blazing Hot Wok, in which a different culture and cuisine is explored each month. Please read the Regional Recipe rules to see if you'd like to participate. Wandering Chopsticks is this month's host with a spotlight on Mexico. Next month: American food. (I may have to try making biscuits and gravy.)