Hi, I'm Alexis Salgado, and the reason that we are doing a video of what I'm going to
do today is because so many people have asked, what is flancocho? Flancocho is a combination
of flan and cake, but it's not just that simple, because I have a family recipe for
flan that not that many people have, my children of course have it, and always been told that
our flan is very creamy and very light, and so I use that recipe for anything that has
a flan rather than any other recipe that I might find on the internet or on a cookbook.
So although I will show you what I am doing, you will not be able to see how much of milk
I'm using or what kind of milk I'm using, because that part of it is a family secret,
those measurements, and I am not willing to share that. However, I am going to show you
the process that I go through to make a flancocho, so that you can better have an idea of what
it takes to make it and what actually goes into it.
The pot on the stove that I am going to preheat, because that is where I am going to put the
sugar. The sugar has to melt into a caramel consistency, so that I can put it in the pan
before I pour the flan mixture in it. The one thing about the caramel that you are
going to make is that I do not add any water, I do not add milk or any other ingredients,
and what happens is once it starts to get warm, you have to stop everything that you
are doing and just consistently stir it, because if the caramel were to boil just a little,
it would taste burnt, and your flancocho or flan or anything that you would make with
that type of a caramel base would then be ruined, you would have to start all over again,
so that is what I do.
At this point, I am going to preheat the oven that I haven't started yet, so that it could
be ready to go when I am ready to insert the flancocho complete mixture into it.
Another thing that I want you to notice is that I have two pans here, and the reason
for this is that flancocho is exactly like the flan made in what we say in Spanish, baño
de María, which means it is a double boiler. I put water in this pan before I put the flancocho
in it, because the heat of the water is what actually base it in order for the sugar not
to get nasty and burned, and in order for it to cook correctly, so I am going to start
putting the eggs in here so that you can see that they are fresh eggs that I use for the
flan part of the mixture.
I have pre-prepared the milk mixture, because as I mentioned before, I really don't want
anybody to see what kind of milk it is that I use. I have also pre-prepared the flour
mixture.
In the meantime, I am going to start preheating the pot where I am going to put the sugar
in, because I like to preheat it so that when I put the sugar in, it takes a little shorter
time to do. I will speed it up a little bit, just so that I can get it going better. I
am going to pour in the milk mixture that I have over here that I pre-prepared.
Once again, I will mix this. What I do to make sure that none of that egg white gets
into the final product is that I strain it. As you can see, it is a pretty close strainer.
The holes are very small, but this also helps in case by any chance there is any egg shell
that when in there, you avoid putting any of that into your flancocho. Whether it is
a flano or flancocho, when you finally get the final product, you will be getting a creamy
consistency throughout everything that you are eating.
I am ready to prepare the flour mixture. Like I did mention in the beginning, there are
certain things that I will not show you because I prepared the flour mixture previously, and
I have prepared the egg mixture. Again, as I did previously, I am going to whip the egg
up a little bit. I will give up one of my secrets, though, however. When you are making
a homemade cake, usually a lot of people have a problem because the cakes come out very
dry. One way to get your cakes moist, regardless of what kind of cake you are making, if you
are making a from scratch cake, I advise that you use a little box of instant pudding.
Usually vanilla is the best one no matter what kind of cake you are making. If you use
the vanilla, it will not take away from your lemon flavor or anything else. What it will
do is it will make it very moist. What you do with the vanilla pudding is you mix it
in with your flour baking powder and baking soda that you are going to use in your flour
mixture. Always make sure that you use that, and your cake will be as moist as a store
bought cake. I will slowly add the cake mixture. I will mix this. While this is mixing, this
has got very hot, so I need it to move it. What I am going to do now, since the pot is
hot enough, is I am going to pour the sugar in this pot. As you can see, only sugar. I
am going to take a big spoon. If you use a smaller spoon, your hand will get burnt because
the caramel gets very, very hot. I am just going to move it around to make sure that
the heat gets to it evenly. In the meantime, I am going to come over here and put the rest
of the flour mixture in with the egg to make sure it mixes correctly. It is funny there
is a commercial that says you can buy your turkey somewhere and everything is made, but
only mom brings the love. Well, I think that my kids really believe that because they feel
that even though they have the recipe, they think that everything I make has a special
touch. While this is mixing, I let this mix a little while, practically to a whipped consistency
because we are mixing the liquid mixture with the flour. It may have some lumps, and I don't
like the lumps. While that is mixing, I will consistently check. I don't know if you will
be able to see it in the camera, but on the bottom of the pot, you can see the sugar melting.
As you can see, the mixture is going very nice and fluffy, which is what I like when
I make the cake part of this. What I am doing now is I am making sure that because we started
with the liquid and we added powder, as you know, sometimes it sticks to the bottom of
a bowl, and then when you put it into your final mixture, you have lumps, and it's not
really tasty when you try to taste the cake and you have powder after a bite. I make sure
that this is mixed from the bottom that nothing is sticking, and I use a rubber spatula because
I feel it will get to the bottom of the bowl a lot easier than a spoon or any other type,
and then I mix it for a little while longer. Okay, we are back here at the caramel again,
and as you can see, it is starting to change to that caramelic color. Again, to repeat myself
and to answer everyone's questions, is that just sugar or no water or nothing? Exactly.
This is just plain sugar that we are melting over a pretty high heat. I will lower it to
two to make sure it doesn't boil, but you have to understand, when I make a flan and
make it in a glass bowl, so this will set very quickly when I pour it in the glass because
I am using an aluminum pan today for the flan cocho, which is what I always use. It gets
very hot, so when I move this over, I have to put it on pork warming plates, warming
holders, just so that I don't burn the counter or myself. It is almost completely melted
because it is an electric stove. I have turned it off because we know that the burner still
stays hot, and again, I am avoiding the boiling issue. I am ready to take it off the pot
and pour it, or very liquidy, no lumps at all whatsoever. You need to hold this again
because this is aluminum, so it gets hot very easily, is you have to make sure that the
sugar coats the pan. A pretty thick coating stays on the bottom, but that's fine because
you want it to do that. Then what I do is I wait for it to set, but this will set in
about a minute or two because as soon as it starts to cool, it gets hard. Now I am going
to look at the cake mixture and make sure that it's good to go, and it is. I will tell
you that I cook the whole thing for an hour at 350, that much I will tell you. Many of
you will say, but what did you put in it? We still don't know. Well, at least you have
an idea. You can see when I turn this now, it's not moving, so it's ready for me to
pour the egg mixture into it. So I just take the egg mixture and I pour it here as such
right into the pan, and then this is a lesson in physics. It freaks me out every time I
do it because I don't understand how it happens. I now want to pour the cake mixture into
the flan, and you will see, I will try to do this so that you can see it as best as
you can, that what happens is for some reason, and again it's all in physics, the cake floats
on top of the egg mixture, and when you bake it, that's exactly how it bakes, completely
separate. In order for it to be double-boiled in my food, I have to pour the water into
this pan. I put about a cup in there, and then I take this pan that has the mixture
in it, and I put it into the pan with the water. Okay, now what I will do is I'm going
to open the oven, and I'm going to put the whole thing in the oven, and it will bake
at 350 for an hour, set the timer for an hour, and we are done with the preparation.
When we come back, I will show you what the flancocho looks like when we take it out of
the oven, and we turn it over. Before I cut it, and I put it in the tray where I take
it to your home. An hour has passed, and the flancocho is done. So, I'm now going to take
it out of the oven. It looks absolutely beautiful, as you can see my eyes are totally steamed
up here, as it has been completely totally baked. You can see how beautiful it looks,
and I'm ready to go. The first thing that I do is I have to leave it in here for about
20 minutes to cool, but the first thing that I do is I separate the cake from the sides
to allow the caramel that's on the bottom to soak up into the cake just a little bit
while it's warm. Okay, as you can see here, what I'm doing is I'm pressing the caramel,
the cake down into the caramel, so that it can collect some of it while it's nice and
warm. I have a simple cookie sheet. I'm going to place it over the flancocho, as so, and
then I'm going to flip it over. There we go. I got some on the table, as you can see. Attempt
to remove it, so that you can see the final product. There you go, the flancocho. It is
complete now. It is still very hot though, so I'm going to wait about 10 minutes, and
then I'm going to refrigerate it for about half an hour, at which point I'm going to
take it out of the refrigerator. I'm going to cut it in the pieces that I will put in
a round container, where I will then be delivering it to the person that ordered it. So, there's
a flancocho that you can love so much. Thank you so much for watching.
Thank you very much.
