Grandpa's Birthday Flan: Reread to Check and Fix

A Flan for Grandpa Ernesto

1Teo had a plan. For Grandpa Ernesto's seventieth birthday, he would make the dessert himself. Grandpa's favorite was flan, a smooth custard with a layer of dark caramel on top. "Flan is not hard," said Aunt Paloma, "but it does not like to be rushed." She tied an apron around Teo's waist. Then she lined up the ingredients in a neat row on the counter: eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and a can of sweetened condensed milk.

2First came the caramel. Teo poured sugar into a pan and watched it melt over low heat. "Don't stir it with a spoon," Aunt Paloma said. "Just swirl the pan." The sugar turned clear, then pale gold, then the color of an old penny. Aunt Paloma poured it into a round baking dish and tilted the dish so the caramel coated the bottom. "Careful," she warned. "Melted sugar is much hotter than boiling water."

3Next, Teo cracked the eggs into a bowl. One egg cracked badly, and a piece of shell slipped in. He did not panic. He used a bigger piece of shell to scoop it out, a trick his aunt had shown him. Then he whisked in both kinds of milk and the vanilla until the mixture was smooth and pale yellow.

4Aunt Paloma poured the mixture over the caramel. Then she set the dish inside a larger pan and added hot water until it came halfway up the sides. "This is a water bath," she explained. "It keeps the custard from cooking too fast, so it stays creamy instead of rubbery." Into the oven it went.

5While the flan baked, Teo wrapped a present for Grandpa: a new pair of reading glasses in a box covered with red paper. He wound a ribbon around the box twice and tied it tight. Every few minutes, he peeked through the oven window.

6When the center of the flan wobbled only a little, Aunt Paloma lifted it out. "Now comes the hardest step," she said. "We wait." The flan had to cool and then chill in the refrigerator for hours. Teo groaned, but he was content to make Grandpa a birthday card.

7At dinner, the whole family gathered around the table. Teo set a plate on top of the dish, took a deep breath and flipped it over. For a second, nothing happened. Then the flan slid free with a soft plop, and the caramel ran down its sides like syrup. Grandpa Ernesto clapped. "Who made this?" he asked. Teo grinned. "I did, with a little help."