Flan

Name: Flan
Prep time: 9 min
Cook time: 16 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Uruguayan
Ingredients: 100g Sugar; 350g Milk; 45g Sugar; 1 vanilla pod; 4 Egg Yolks; 2 Egg; To taste Dulce de leche

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Dessert recipe with Uruguayan flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 39 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Step-by-step instructions

For the caramel place 100 grams of sugar in a frying pan without any fat and melt on medium heat. Try not to stir with a spoon, but swirl the pan itself. Let melt until you have an amber color and sugar is fully melted. Fill the bottom of four flan containers with it. Caramel will harden immediately, so you need to be fast. My containers yield about 120 milliliters each.
Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius and look for a casserole or container all your four flan containers fit into.
Heat milk with 45 grams of sugar and the cut and scraped out vanilla pod. The milk does not need to boil, just needs to be heated. Take out vanilla pod after a few minutes. Meanwhile stir the egg yolks and eggs gently, try not to incorporate any air in it. Them pour milk-mix into egg-mix and again only stir very gently. Pour into prepared flan containers and place these into your casserole or container. Boil water and pour the water into the large casserole. Be sure not to touch the flan mixture. Place on middle rack in the oven and let bake for about 35-40 minutes. An inserted toothpick should come out clean.
Let cool inside the container for an hour before transferring to the fridge. Chill overnight. The next day gently release the rim and then turn upside down on a plate. Serve with some dulce de leche on the side.

Why this works on a weeknight

Flan genuinely fits a 30-minute weeknight window, which is why it earned a spot in our Sweet Finishes collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Flan actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🍮 Sweet Finishes Dessert Uruguayan ⚡ 30-Min Dinner