Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of Flan
“It was strange to feel like the Ari I used to be. Except that wasn’t totally true. The Ari I used to be didn’t exist anymore.
And the Ari I was becoming? He didn’t exist yet.”
I have mixed feelings about this book.
It's amazing. It wouldn't have won so many awards if it weren't. It's about two boys and their developing friendship, which (SPOILER) eventually leads to love. Which is beautiful, and it isn't seen as often in literature as it should be.
But I wanted to shake Ari (Aristotle) so many times. So. Many.
As someone that's fairly oblivious and kind of dense when it comes to flirting and things of a romantic nature in real life, I get it. It's real. Feelings, especially when you're a teenager like the boys are, are confusing and sometimes you just don't want to deal with them. And it's even more true for them, since boys are typically made fun of for showing emotions. The book being set in 1987 makes that even more extreme.
But come on, Ari. Literally everyone knew you were in love with Dante before you had even the slightest idea. It drove me nuts.
I wanted to bake something that you can eat cold, since the story takes place in the summer. And with both boys being of Mexican descent, I narrowed my options down to fried ice cream or flan.
But when Ari landed himself in the hospital (sticking up for Dante), and all I could think of was jello, which I really don't like.
That made flan the obvious choice.
I didn't want to make it really fancy, partly because I had only made it once before, but also because the writing style isn't incredibly fancy. It's real, and very down-to-earth.
I did use four eggs to make the flan a bit more dense than my original recipe, because I thought that something dense would fit Ari.
I also added extra vanilla, because the whole book is incredibly sweet. It's a love story!
Flan
-1 c white sugar
-4 eggs
-1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
-1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
-1 tbsp + 1 tsp vanilla extract
- in a small saucepan, heat the sugar up over a medium-low temperature. You need to watch this.
- Stir the sugar frequently, until the sugar turns a gorgeous gold and the chunks of sugar dissolve. It should look like caramel (because that's what it is), so it shouldn't be too dark.
- Quickly pour the caramel into a round, 9 in baking pan. You should coat the bottom and sides of the pan as quickly as you can before the caramel hardens. I had my pan sitting in a hot water bath to give me a little extra time to spread the caramel evenly.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients.
- Pour the milk mixture into your pan.
- Cover the pan with tinfoil.
- Bake the flan in a water bath (this is so important! Trust me) at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the water bath and let it cool completely.
- Ideally, you want to let the flan refrigerate for two hours, if not overnight. I didn't do that, which is why my flan has a dark patch of caramel on it. It still tasted amazing, and it was still a bit warm (oops), which I enjoyed (I'm always cold, and the A.C. is on full blast in my house right now—gross).
- You want to run a knife along the edges of your pan to un-stick the flan.
- Place a plate, upside-down, on top of the pan. The plate needs to have a bit of a lip, or you're going to get caramel everywhere. Quickly flip the pan and plate, so the pan is now upside-down and the plate is right-side-up. The flan should slide right out. You can tap the bottom of the pan or wiggle it a bit to help it. If it still isn't coming out, you'll have to warm the bottom of the pan a bit to get the caramel to release.
Then you serve and enjoy! (Try not to eat it all in one sitting... it would be really easy to do, but you probably shouldn't.)
