Yamile Medina Can, long-time employee at Casa Mayanah, stopped by last week with a treat — her home-made Queso Napolitano. Flan is one of many desserts she bakes for her business, Dulces Antojo. And let me tell you, it is really good!
Mexican flan is a bit different from the original Spanish dessert brought from Spain. The original recipe called for milk and perhaps some heavy cream, but in Mexico the milk was replaced by sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk. The vanilla was increased — and of course, Mexican vanilla has a bolder flavor. For Flan Napolitano, cream cheese is added, making it an even richer.
If you’re not in Akumal, you might want to try making your own flan.
Queso Napolitano
Ingredients Oven at 350°F (190°-170° C)
1 c. granulated sugar – for the caramel sauce
7 large eggs
5 ½ ozs. cream cheese
16 ozs. sweetened condensed milk
22 ozs. evaporated milk
3 tsp. vanilla extract
Preparation
Preheat a deep 9” baking pan in warm oven.
Cook half the sugar over medium-high heat, shaking the pan constantly. Add remaining sugar and continue stirring constantly until melted. When the sauce is ready, it will be an amber color.
Pour caramel into pan, swiftly tilting and swirling to coat the bottom. The sauce hardens quickly!
Combine the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. Add vanilla last.
Pour over caramel. Cover pan with aluminum foil and crimp the edges. Place flan into center of large baking dish filled with about 1” water.
Bake for about 1½ hrs. or until a sharp knife inserted into center comes out clean.
Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.
Serving
Remove flan from refri and uncover. Put flan into another hot water bath on top of stove for 
a few minutes. Remove flan and use a straight knife to loosen the edges. Cover flan with the serving plate, bottom side up. Invert the flan and give it a little jiggle to loosen.
In Akumal, you can call Yamile —
Leave a Reply