Jan's Lazy Man Flan, even though Jan is neither lazy, nor a man

This is Jan and Eva (a.k.a. Viking Granny a.k.a. Joy!) times 4.  They are the contributors of tonights recipe.  That's Jan, the brains of the operation, on the right.  Eva, the photographer and multi-send emailer, on the left.

And this is Jan's Lazy Man Flan.  Let's get started.

You're going to need a cup of sugar, a teaspoon of salt, 6 large eggs, a can of evaporated milk, a can of sweetened condensed milk, some whole milk, and vanilla, preferrably Mexican vanilla.  Oh yeah.  If you have cinnamon sticks, awesome!  If you just have ground cinnamon, that's o.k. too.

Directions:

Pour one cup of white sugar into pan and heat slowly over medium heat, like so.  (Commentary from Beth:  If you have never done this, as i had not before today, you should.  It's grand fun.  I had no idea you could melt sugar like that.  Also, and this is more important, be careful.  It burns easily.)

When the sugar is melted (but not burned), drizzle it into the bottoms of two ready pie plates.  The sugar will solidify almost immediately, so don't expect to get to slosh it around later.  Where it is is where it is.

O.k., now, you need to ready something in your oven to act as a double boiler.  Double boilers allow your pan to cook more slowly and evenly in a water bath, instead of just regular oven heat.  Put your double-boilers in the oven.  In this case, we're using large rectangle cake pans.

Then get some water in a kettle or other pouring vessel.

And pour water in the double boiler pans.  About an inch depth should do it.

Set the oven to 350 degrees.

Now, while the oven is preheating, is your chance to mix up the ingredients for your grand dessert.

Into a large mixing bowl, pour one 12 ounce can of evaporated milk.

A 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk.

A can of whole milk - Jan used the evaporated milk can to measure.

Six large eggs.

One half teaspoon of Mexican vanilla - or one whole teaspoon of regular vanilla extract.

A dash of salt.

Then, mix it all up.  But WAIT!  This additional instruction is very important.  Do NOT use an electric mixer. It doesn't have the necessary finesse.  Use a fork or a whisk, but whatever you use, use your hand!  Don't wimp out and go to the electricity.  This recipe requires your personal attention.

Mix for 5 to 10 minutes.  WithOUT the electric mixer.

When it's mixed, ladle the mixture evenly into the two pie plates.

Then, when the oven is heated up, place the pie pans (carefully) in the double boilers.

Before you close the oven door, carefully float your cinnamon sticks on top of the batter.  Then bake for 30 minutes.

Look at that!  Aren't they beautiful!  But wait again!  You're not quite done.  Now that you've baked them, you need to chill them.  At least two hours in the fridge please.

After it's chilled, you can enjoy a slice on your plate.  Just spoon out a little of that yummy caramelness from underneath to decorate the top of your slice.

Isn't that nice!

Enjoy!

Then thank Jan and Eva for sharing such a wonderful dessert with you.  Yum!

Thank you Jan and Eva!