Adapted from The Art and Craft of Chocolate by Nathan Hodge, this recipe for a rich custard dessert combines he fruitiness of guajilllo chiles with chocolate to bring some excitement to a classic flan.
"Guajillo chiles are a popular everyday chile in and around Mexico City," Hodge points out. "They're used in a sauces and soups and stewed meats. They have a very mild hear, but a rich in the beautiful flavor of lightly smoke raisins or prunes."
Ingredients
1½ cups sugar, divided
⅓ cup water
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup stemmed and chopped guajillo chiles
1 cinnamon stick
10 oz. chocolate, chopped
5 large eggs, plus 1 large egg yolk
¼ teaspoon vanilla bean powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Combine half the sugar and the water in a small saucepan, preferably a copper one, over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Cook until the syrup becomes a deep copper color and registers 240°F on a candy thermometer. Immediately pour the hot caramel into a 9-inch pie platepie plate and swirl the plate gently until the caramel coats the entire bottom.
Put the milk, cream, chiles, and cinnamon in the top of a double boiler over medium-low heat. Allow the cinnamon and chiles to steep in the warm milk 10 to 15 minutes. Strain the milk to remove the solids, and pour the milk back into the double boiler. Whisk the chocolate into the milk until melted and smooth.
Whisk the remaining sugar with the eggs, egg yolk, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Pour into the chocolate-milk mixture and whisk until smooth. Pour the custard mixture into the pie plate.
Place the pie plate into a roasting pan and place in the oven. Carefully add water to the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the pie plate. Bake the flan for 30 minutes, or until set but still jiggly.
Remove from the oven, remove the pie plate from the water bath, and let cool on a wire rack for up to 30 minutes. Put in the refrigerator to set for 4 hours. When the flan appears to be fully set, run a thin knife along the sides of the pie plate to help release the flan. Place a plate upside-down on top of the pie plate, hold tightly, and flip it over to release the flan.
