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A few weeks ago, my friend Becky decided to have a ROYGBIV potluck party — everyone was required to bring one food from one color of the rainbow. I took yellow and declared I would make FLAN.

FLAN!?!?! What the hell was I thinking? Who likes flan? I mean, my mother is a great maker of flan, but most people — I mean, it’s just not something that you would go out of your way to eat, you know? Even I can acknowledge that.

And I tried to cover it up at the potluck by passing it off as “creme caramel,” which sounds exotic and fancy — but people know what’s up.

Whatever, I’m just being negative. Seriously, though, it was super easy and the recipe is pretty foolproof. If executed successfully, you will have a lovely, light, creme-brulee-esque sugar cream heaven. But if you overcook it even just a tad, you will end up with rubber.

Unfortunately, I overcooked my flan slightly. I can’t be awesome at every recipe.

This recipe for flan is taken from Nora Daza’s “Let’s Cook with Nora” Filipino cookbook.

Recipe:

2 c evaporated milk
8 egg yolks
1 tsp lemon rind
splash of vanilla
1 c sugar
1/2 c caramel syrup

Boil a teakettle of water.

In a saucepan, heat up 1-1/2 c sugar over low heat. Don’t touch it. Let it turn into liquid on its own, stir it once, and then pour into your flan pan. Place the pan in a cool place and let the sugar caramel harden.

In a double boiler, scald the milk (that means, boil it to a point where there is a film on top, about 15 minutes). Beat the egg yolks and whisk it in, with sugar, vanilla and lemon. Stir that together until combined (the batter is so good on its own…you should try it). Pour into the flan pan.

Place a large roasting pan in the oven. put the pan with your flan in it. Pour boiling water into the roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the flan pan.

Bake for 45 minutes, and remove immediately from the water to stop it from cooking. Unmold just before serving.