Martha Stewart Living (October 2014)
We're always pleasantly surprised when people ask us if The Bitten Word is our full-time job.
No, the truth is we both have day jobs. And they're day jobs that we love. But once in a while, those day jobs actually overlap with The Bitten Word.
Case in point: this past weekend. Clay works with a wonderful nonprofit devoted to ending childhood hunger in America. This weekend was the New York City Wine & Food Festival, and Clay's organization is one of the two beneficiaries of all the funds raised by the event. So Clay was in New York for several days working the event. One of his jobs was to introduce food personalities who were doing chef demos. (Zach tagged along for the free food and wine. He's no fool.)
Anyway, on Saturday afternoon, Clay got to introduce to the stage ... Ms. Martha Stewart! (Have you heard of her?)
Even better? He got to mingle with her in the green room backstage. Okay, maybe "mingle" is too strong a word. But they get to exchange a few words before the event began. Martha was super busy, and they only really had a chance to exchange a couple pleasantries and talk about the festival.
But it's just as well that's all the time they had together: If they'd talked for even a little bit longer, it's likely that Clay would have blurted out five exuberant, slightly embarrassing words:
"We loved your Maple Flan!"
We made this flan last week and served it after dinner with our friends Will and Scott. All four of us absolutely devoured it. It's cool and milky, rich and creamy, with that great darkly sweet flavor of maple syrup.
We loved it. Seriously. But we have some cautionary notes for you:
1. The prep time. We had initially planned to serve this for dinner on a Saturday night. But we messed up and didn't read the recipe closely enough: You have to set the flan for at least 4 hours. We didn't have enough time to make it that night. So we made it anyway and served it a few nights later (see #3 below).
2. The cook time. We could not for the life of us figure out the cook time on this. We checked the flan after it had gone 50 minutes in the oven and it was nowhere near "set along edges but still very wobbly in center." It was soupy throughout. We kept increasing the cook time by 10-minute increments. Finally we pulled it out after a total of an hour and 20 minutes. It still wasn't as set as we thought it should have been, but we were nervous about cooking it any longer.
3. Even after it had cooled in the refrigerator, we were doubtful that we would be able to invert it onto a plate. We even captured a video of Clay flipping over the dish, because we were just certain that it was going to be completely liquid and go all over our kitchen. But no! We we actually flipped it onto a plate, it was set enough to slice. It was, however, not very attractive on the plate, and it didn't take much for the slices to fall apart. Should we really have cooked it even longer?
4. Don't make this early and save it until a few nights later! Our flan faded to a murky gray color over the course of a few days in the fridge. Between that and the consistency issues we had, the flan we served was seriously unappetizing. It tasted amazing but looked decidedly less than great.
5. The recipe says to refrigerate "at least 4 hours." We'd suggest a maximum limit as well: No more than 5 hours.
So our message to you is: Make this flan! It's a wonderful autumn dessert. You will love it.
Just do a better job than we did.
In the meantime, if you need us, we'll be stalking Martha so we can scream "We loved your Maple Flan!" and then scurry away.
Maple Flan
Martha Stewart Living (October 2014)
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(This photo: Martha Stewart Living)
Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: 7 hours 10 minutes
Servings: 12
INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups maple syrup, preferably grade A dark amber
3 large eggs, beaten
5 large egg yolks, beaten
2 1/2 cups half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
DIRECTIONS
STEP 1
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bring 1 cup maple syrup to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Boil, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 2/3 cup, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool just until foam subsides. Pour into an 8-inch round cake pan, tilting pan to evenly coat bottom and sides to rim. Place cake pan in center of a roasting pan.
STEP 2
Gently whisk together eggs, egg yolks, half-and-half, salt, and remaining 3/4 cup syrup in a bowl. Skim off and discard any foam from surface. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into cake pan. Pour enough scalding-hot water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of cake pan.
STEP 3
Bake until flan is set along edges but still very wobbly in center, 50 to 60 minutes. (Flan will continue to set as it cools.) Carefully remove pan from hot-water bath and place on a wire rack; let cool completely. Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours.
STEP 4
When ready to serve, run a thin-bladed knife between flan and sides of pan to loosen. Place a rimmed plate or platter upside down over pan, then hold onto pan and plate and quickly invert together. Carefully lift pan, tapping on bottom if necessary to release flan. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.
NOTE: Do not remove the flan from the refrigerator until ready to serve. Unmold just before serving.
