Matcha Flan

Man I seriously love the holidays. There’s something so special about this time of year where people are nicer, and there is a focus on spending time with your loved ones. It’s no secret one of my favorite relatives is my Aunt Huong or as I like to call her Hollywood. Read this post if you’re confused why I call her Hollywood. She is one of the most amazing people in my life. She’s a great mother, a great friend, and one of the best cooks I know. I probably have about 5-10 favorite dishes from her, but the only dessert I associate with her is flan.

Personally, I don’t love flan normally, but I love it when she makes it. She usually uses a package of flan mix to make her version and then serves it with French roast coffee. It’s such a comforting dessert, so when I approached my last recipe of the year with Aiya Matcha, I knew I had to make a matcha version of this dessert. It’s so simple to make, and is great for special occasions like the upcoming holidays.

How a French dessert came to Vietnam

Flan is a dessert that originates from Spain and France. It is very similar to creme brûlée, but the difference is flan has a layer of caramel sauce on top while creme brûlée has hard-crusted caramel on top. So you’re probably thinking how does this relate to Vietnamese cuisine? Well for 6 decades starting in the late 1880’s, France occupied Vietnam. This colonization led to the influence of French cuisine on Vietnamese cuisine. The perfect example of this history is this dessert flan. It still remains a very popular dessert in Vietnam. Some variations include serving it with coffee which is what my aunt Hollywood does.

I of course needed to make my own version of this dessert using matcha! I love matcha, and I especially love matcha-fying all my recipes. In the past, I’ve made matcha versions of mochi donuts and even lava cake.

Ingredients, Substitution & Adjustments

For the caramel:

1. Sugar – For this recipe, I used white sugar. A good substitute would be raw sugar which is a little bit healthier.
2. Water – Room temperature water should work for this recipe.
3. Eggs – Any type of large eggs should work for this recipe.
4. Sugar – White sugar works best for this recipe but raw sugar works as well.
5. Milk – Use whole milk because it tastes better with the higher fat content.
6. Aiya culinary grade matcha powder – My favorite matcha powder! Make sure you use culinary grade matcha powder when cooking with matcha.
7. Vanilla extract – To add a touch more flavor to the flan. You can also substitute 1 to 1 with vanilla paste which is way more flavorful. My favorite vanilla extract is from Nielsen-Massey.

Making matcha flan

Matcha flan looks intimidating, but it’s so easy to make. First preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Then make the caramel. Add 1/3 cup of sugar with 2 tablespoons of water to a small sauce pan. Heat over medium heat and let the sugar melt until it turns a dark brown color. After completed, quickly pour into greased ramekins. I used 5 ramekins that are each 4 inches in diameter. Set aside.

The next step is to make the flan. Add 2 egg yolks and 2 eggs to a small bowl. Whisk until the eggs are well broken down. Add 1/3 cup of sugar to the eggs and whisk. Set aside.

Add 1 2/3 a cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of Aiya culinary grade matcha powder to another sauce pan. Whisk in the matcha powder to avoid clumping. Heat over medium heat while whisking the matcha and milk together. Make sure both are mixed well and the milk is warm. Finally add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the matcha milk.

The final step is to combine the matcha milk and egg/sugar mixture. Add 1/4 cup of the matcha milk mixture to the egg and sugar mixture. You are tempering the eggs, so they won’t cook when you combine the hot matcha milk with the eggs. Mix a few times before adding it to the matcha milk in the sauce pan. Whisk everything together. Divide evenly between your ramekins. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for an hour at room temperature and an hour in the fridge.

Right before serving, use a knife to loosen the edges of the matcha flan from the ramekin. Invert the ramekin onto a plate and serve!

Tips on how to make the perfect matcha flan

1. The dots in the matcha flan. The dots in the flan come from air bubbles created when whisking the eggs and milk. Avoid whisking furiously if you want to avoid the dots, but I think it’s okay.
2. Use room temperature eggs. It is a lot easier to work with room temperature eggs than cold eggs. The reason for this is because it is a lot harder to temper cold eggs. You could still end up accidentally cooking the eggs even after tempering. To get eggs to room temperature, either leave them out for an hour or put them in warm water for 5-10 minutes.
3. Leave the sugar alone when making caramel. DO NOT TOUCH the sugar while it is melting on the stove. Sugar you are trying to turn into caramel is best left alone.
4. Grease your ramekins. You don’t have to grease your ramekins, but I found that it helps loosen the flan from the ramekin after baking. Use butter, vegetable oil, or Pam to grease ramekins.

Did you make this Matcha Flan?

If you made this dish, I would love to see!

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Thank you to Aiya Matcha for sponsoring this post.