A few weeks ago, my husband and I were watching television and flipping through channels when we stumbled upon this wonderful dessert - Magic Chocolate Flan. It looked soooo delicious that I had to get the recipe. One look at that cake and my husband said "I don't want any other dessert but that for Thanksgiving!" So, I searched for the recipe and now I have it to share with all of you. It was taken from Cooks Country recipe and it is divine! I tweaked it a bit but mostly it is straight forward from the original recipe. It is traditionally made in a fluted 12 cup bundt cake pan but mine was only an 8 cup so I just did it in my regular bundt pan. The fluted pan gives it a prettier presentation. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I did!
CAKE:
1/2 cup caramel sauce (homemade or store bought - I used Trader Joes)
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp flour
1/3 cup cocoa ( I used Vahlrona as it is soooo rich)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 salt
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
FLAN:
2 cans sweetened condensed milk (eagle brand is good to use)
21/2 cups whole milk
6 ounces cream cheese
6 large eggs plus 4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup nonstick bundt pan. Make sure that you do not flour the pan. I just used organic palm shortening or you can use crisco or whatever you have on hand. Only do not use flour. Pour the caramel sauce into the bottom of the pan (if store bought and thick, you may need to slightly warm it up in the microwave to be pourable).
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the chocolate and butter and microwave for about 1 minute stirring in between, (about every 20 seconds) until the mixture is melted and smooth. If still not melted, continue to do this every 10 seconds or so. Please make sure that you do not scorch your chocolate. Set aside. Whisk the buttermilk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until combined. Gradually add into the melted chocolate mixture until incorporated. Add this to your flour mixture and stir until combined. Pour the chocolate batter evenly over the caramel.
- Add all the flan ingredients to a blender and process until smooth. Slowly and carefully pour the flan mixture over the the cake batter. Place the filled cake pan in a large roasting pan. Place the roasting pan in the oven and carefully pour warm water into the roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the bundt pan. Bake the cake until a toothpick comes out clean. This may take anywhere from 70 to 90 minutes depending on your oven. Remove the Bundt pan from the roasting pan and place it on a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate for 8 hours (or up to 12).
- To remove the cake from the pan, fill a large bowl with hot water and place the bottom third of the Bundt pan in the water for 1 minute. Carefully invert the cake onto a flat plate or cake platter. Slowly remove the pan letting the caramel drizzle over the top of the cake. Serve chilled. Add extra caramel sauce to your slice if you like. Enjoy!!