No-Bake Leche Flan

My family never owned an oven. And we have had this recipe long before I was born, in fact, I didn't even know that Leche Flan was originally a baked dessert until I argued with a colleague and googled about it!

If the leche flans I've eaten from commercial providers and fast foods are baked, then this recipe tastes just as well...maybe even better!

Ingredients:

3 370 ml cans of evaporated milk
2 300ml cans of condensed milk
12 egg yolks
white sugar
1 calamansi


*You will need at least 6 standard sized leche flan metal trays for this recipe.
**How to separate egg yolk from egg whites can be found here.

1. Place 1 1/2 tbsp white sugar on your metal trays. Shake the sugar and find out if it's enough to cover the base of the tray so you'll know whether to add or remove some sugar.


2. Hold tray on top of stove with tongs to heat the sugar and form caramel. It's up to you if you want it a little burnt, golden brown, or a colorless liquified sugar. Set aside until the caramelized sugar hardens.

3. Boil water enough to fill half of your steamer base.


4. Beat egg yolks and add milk and calamansi. (I place everything inside a blender for better mixing, by the way.) Once everything is thoroughly mixed, put some of the mixture on top of the caramel floored metal trays. Cover the tray if you have the covered ones, or cover with foil if you have the open ones.

5. Arrange metal trays on the upper layers of the steamer (the ones with the holes). Make sure there's enough room for hot air to pass through, especially if you're cooking 2 or more layers up.

6.Steam on low fire. After an hour, open one of the metal trays and stick a wooden toothpick inside the flan. You'll know that the leche flan is ready if nothing sticks to your toothpick when you pull it out. If there is, close the tray cover and close the lid of the steamer and steam for 30 more mins. Keep on repeating the process until it's ready. I cooked mine for 2 hours.

7. Allow to cool naturally before keeping in fridge.

So this was our dessert last Christmas, even though we weren't able to eat it on Christmas eve! Why? Because I had asthma on Christmas eve and everyone was so tired...we just slept! Can you believe it?

How about you? What was on your Christmas eve table?

your every woman,