Flan can refer to two different things: either a baked custard dessert topped with caramel similar to the French crème caramel, or a tart-like sweet pastry with a filling called a fruit flan.
A dessert flan is made of eggs; sweetened condensed milk, cream or whole milk; and flavorings such as vanilla, orange, coconut, or coffee. Because egg-based custard is delicate, flan is baked in a water bath in the oven.
A fruit flan is typically baked in a special metal flan ring with straight sides. Unlike a tart or a cake pan, a flan ring does not have a bottom, which makes it easier to unmold. A flan ring needs to be placed on a baking sheet for baking. The baked pastry shell is then topped with pastry cream and fresh fruit such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, apricots, or peaches or combinations thereof.
Flan is a popular dessert in Spain and Latin America, and its name and not so much its preparation varies from country to country.
Flan napolitano is another name for Mexican flan with a caramel layer on the bottom that is inverted onto a serving plate so the caramel is on top. It’s quite similar to Spanish flan, and that’s not surprising because the Spanish originally brought the flan to Mexico, from where it spread all over Latin America.
In Mexico and Central America, flan can be made with fresh milk or with condensed milk. Cuban flan uses only evaporated and condensed milk from cans because fresh milk is not readily available there.
Leche flan is the Filipino version of flan similar to Mexican flan.
Flan de queso is a Latin American flan variation made with cream cheese that can also be flavored with coconut.