Full Revised Spanish Flan Recipe

[linked from allrecipes.com] The pink font is for the explanations, and I owe credit to ASOTO (the original chef), aka Adriana, and the advice given by the reviewers from dates 12.31.07-04.07.08. I've just created this for those who want a faster reference without having to read the reviews. Flan is painstakingly easy to mess up for what seems to be any easy recipe, but the turnout is delicious.

Makes:
One 9.5 inch round flan, about 1 inch thick

Prep Time:
1-2 hrs
Cook Time:
65 min
Ready In:
8 hrs
Servings:
8

Ingredients
1 cup white sugar [for glaze]
4 large eggs
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (use 7 ounces of the 14 ounces in the can)
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (163 degrees C).
2. Put a cookie sheet, cake round, or pan, that's bigger than your 9.5 inch glass round baking/pie dish, onto the middle rack and fill it with water so that it reaches the ⅓ or ½-way mark on your glass round. This will serve as the waterbath for your flan.
3. Put your glass round into the waterbath to warm up as the oven is preheating. This will keep the glaze from hardening too fast when put in contact with the round.
4. In a large bowl, mix the eggs by hand. Mix in the evaporated milk and vanilla until blended. Mix in the condensed milk by spoonfuls; it helps to make sure it gets mixed in nicely. It should look a tiny bit thick, a lot runny, opaque, & light yellow. Set aside.
5. In a medium saucepan over the lowest heat control, let the sugar sit for a moment, letting the granules warm up a bit. Sugar doesn't like being heated up right away; when it is, it burns.
6. After 3 - 4 minutes, turn the heat up a tiny bit and wait again for about 2 - 3 more minutes until you see the edges of your sugar turn slightly yellow and translucent: the sign of melting.
7. Let that sit for 1 minute, then stir the sugar from the outside to the middle VERY slowly. This lets the air bubbles underneath the pile of sugar to come out, and not burn the thin film of already melted sugar on the bottom of the saucepan. Don't stir too much or too fast though! Your sugar will be lumpy and not fully melted if done right.
8. Alternate from a low heat setting to a medium-low setting every minute or so to keep the sugar from overheating, but to keep the sugar from not melting at all. Once you get a mixture that's slightly syrup-y but still slightly sugar-y, stop! That's enough, because if you melt it all to syrup, it'll burn while you're baking. The syrup part should be golden in color.
9. Now take out the round from the oven, being careful not to touch the hot water, and set it down. Pour the hot sugar mixture into the round and quickly spread it out in the bottom of the dish; it will seem to harden quite quickly despite the heated dish.
10. Pour the egg mixture through a strainer on top of the caramel, and cover loosely with aluminum foil, poking holes into the sheet. It may be easier to poke the holes into the foil before placing foil on the round. The strainer is used to make the consistency of the flan smoother, and without “eggy lumps”, and the holes in the aluminum foil help bake the flan.
11. Bake for about 60 min (adding more water into the pan halfway through baking; the water usually evaporates and needs to be replenished for the flan to be baked correctly), then take a peek into your oven, lifting the foil to look at your flan. If it's a light golden brown at the edges, then you’re ready to take it out. If it’s only a light orange/gold color, let it bake for about 5 more min.
12. Let it cool for around 2 hrs with the foil on, and then an additional 2-3 hrs without the foil at room temp. This helps the caramel bond a bit with the egg mixture and prevents the caramel from sticking to the bottom of the round when inverting.
13. After cooling at room temp, refrigerate with plastic/Saran wrap until cold to the touch. Touch the middle of the actual flan, being careful not to poke a hole. Don’t judge the coldness by only touching the glass round—it will oftentimes be colder than the actual flan.
14. When you want to serve, which can be the next day, place the glass round into a small waterbath again by placing the round in a larger pan filled with hot water. Before inverting to try and flip the flan, sort of tilt the round a bit to let the syrup flow out into a small bowl or plate. This prevents the syrup from going everywhere when inverting, if you have a plate that doesn’t fit exactly with the top of your round.
15. Then, place the plate you want the flan to be on, upside down on top of the round. Hold the round with both hands, and invert. If the flan does not come out right away, you can try to shake it a little, or replace it back into the waterbath for a few minutes to repeat.
16. Once inverted, pour the syrup from the bowl back onto the center of the flan. You’ll have some of the caramelized sugar stuck on the bottom of the round.
17. Cut and serve.
    
    Note: If want the flan to be sweeter, you can make more of the syrup glaze to taste. The only difference there would be melting the sugar thoroughly.

Also, please comment here or on my collaborated recipe about additional changes you find that help with the overall process! Any advice or questions, feel free to tell or ask!