Chocolate flan may become your new favorite dessert. Flan is a classic Hispanic dessert that is beloved the world over. It is a sweet custard baked in a caramel-covered pan and served upside down in a puddle of sweet caramel sauce. You'll love this easy recipe with video.
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- Last reviewed . Published Feb 14, 2023Why we ❤️ it
Desserts may be the most enjoyable part of a meal, adding a sweet note to the end of a satisfying dinner. And among the many sweet treats one could have, one dessert stands out for its creamy texture and rich flavor: flan.
Adding chocolate to this lovely dessert adds some really interesting notes to it, making it a decadent and irresistible treat. So if you love flan, and want to try something new, you certainly can't go wrong with this one.
Variations
You can bake this chocolate flan in a regular baking dish or cake pan, or make them into individual servings by using smaller ramekins. I prefer the former because it is just easier to clean afterward.
For these photos, I used a 6-inch ring mold It makes it prettier. You can also use a 7-inch cake pan or small ramekins for individual servings (you'll need 6 1-cup ramekins).
Flan de chocolate.
More flan ideas
If you're a flan lover you'll love to hear that we have a lot of other flan recipes for you. You can start with the classic vanilla flan, or try a coconut flan or a coffee flan. On the more innovative side, try this vegan eggless pumpkin flan (flan de auyama), a bread "flan", and a lovely flan-like dulce de leche panna cotta.
And for chocolate lovers, there's our chocolate de agua (dairy-free cocoa that blends chocolate cover and spices), and our creamy chocolate con leche drink. You will also enjoy my sugar-free chocolate cake recipe.
Top tips
- Most flan cakes have some vanilla flavors. You can add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to this one for extra layers of flavor, but be mindful that the chocolate flavor may overpower the vanilla flavor.
- You may be tempted to rush and shorten the chilling period, but this is important for the flan to set completely. If you do, it may break or be too mushy. A little patience will be your best friend here.
About this recipe
For this recipe, I've used a combination of egg yolks and a whole egg. It's what I found gave me the best result, as opposed to my favorite: just egg yolks.
This recipe yields 6 servings.
Video
Recipe
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Chocolate Flan [Recipe + Video] Flan de Chocolate
Ingredients
For caramel coating
- ½ cup sugar, white, granulated
- 1 tablespoon water
For the chocolate flan
- 4 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ cup boiling-hot milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 egg
- 1⅓ cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1¼ cup evaporated milk
Instructions
1. Making the caramel sauce.
- Mix sugar and water and cook in a medium saucepan over low heat until thick golden-brown caramel forms. Make sure it does not burn! On some stoves, you may need to stir it gently with a spatula to prevent it from burning if there are hot spots.Pour carefully into a 5-cup cake pan or bundt pan and spread all over, but especially the bottom. Cool to room temperature. By then, the caramel should have hardened.In the meantime, preheat the oven to 320 ºF [160ºC].
2. Dissolve the cocoa
- Mix the cocoa powder and boiling-hot milk and stir until the cocoa has dissolved. Set aside to cool to room temperature while you continue with the following step.
3. Making the flan mixture
- In a large bowl, combine egg yolks, egg, condensed milk, and evaporated milk. Add the dissolved cocoa at room temperature, and whisk gently to combine all the ingredients without producing foam.Passing through a fine-mesh sieve, pour into the baking pan..
4. Baking
- Boil about ⅓ gallon [3 liters] of water, and pour into a large roasting pan. Place the cake mold with the flan mix into the roasting pan, being careful not to scald yourself or let water into the baking dish. The water should be at the same level as the flan mixture.Bake in this hot water bath (bain Marie) on the middle oven rack for one hour.
5. Chilling
- Carefully remove the roasting pan from the oven, and the baking pan from the water bath. Let the baking pan with the flan cool to room temperature. Once completely cool, cover the baking pan with a plastic film, aluminum foil, or reusable waxed fabric, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, preferably 12.
6. Serving
- Once thoroughly chilled and set, loosen the edges of the flan with a toothpick. To unmold, place a serving plate on top of the mold (deep enough to retain the caramel sauce) and invert. You may need to shake or tap the mold a bit to break the vacuum and release the cake.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated automatically based on ingredients listed. Please consult your doctor if you need precise nutrition information.
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FAQs
As with all flans, chocolate flan is based on a mixture of eggs (or egg yolks), and dairy. The dominant flavor in classic flan is vanilla, and in chocolate flan is chocolate.
Flan and custard are similar in that both are based on a dairy and egg mixture, but the process is different, and the results are too.