Recipe for a light and airy orange flan

Ingredients

For the flan

• 1 organic lemon
• 1 packet lemon peel flavoring (e.g., from Dr. Oetker)
• 100 g sugar
• 1 liter cream
• 8 x egg yolks, size M
• 2 x eggs, size M

For the orange syrup

• 5 oranges
• 1 vanilla bean
• 100 g sugar
• 150 ml water
• 50 ml sherry (optional)

Preparation

1. For the flan, grate a few paper-thin strips of zest from the organic lemon.

2. These are now brought to a boil with the sugar and the cream in a saucepan.

3. Then let the cream steep for 1 hour.

4. Now pour the mixture through a sieve, add the lemon flavoring, the egg yolks and the eggs, and blend well with the immersion blender.

5. Now fill a roasting pan halfway with water and preheat it on the lowest rack of the oven at 140 °C (top and bottom heat) (for gas mark 1; fan-assisted oven is not recommended).

6. Pour the flan mixture to the rim into 8 ovenproof ramekins (150 ml each) and carefully place the ramekins into the water bath.

7. The flan must now cook for 90 minutes.

8. After 60 minutes of cooking time, cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil.

9. Then remove the ramekins from the oven so the flan can cool.

10. For this, juice three oranges.

11. Peel the remaining oranges with a knife so that all the white pith is completely removed.

12. Now the oranges can be cut into slices about 1/2 cm thick.

13. Place the delicate orange slices in a shallow dish.

14. Now the vanilla pod comes into play.

15. Cut it lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the back of a knife.

16. Together with the sugar, the vanilla pod (which still imparts its flavor excellently to the syrup), the orange juice and the water, reduce in a saucepan for about 20 minutes until a nice syrup has formed.

17. Let the liquid cool, optionally refine with sherry, and pour over the orange slices.

18. The syrup should be allowed to soak well into the orange slices.

19. After the flan has cooled in the ramekins, carefully invert it onto plates.

20. To do this, run a knife along the edge between the custard and the ramekin and briefly dip the ramekins in hot water.

21. Now the flan can be easily released.

22. Finally, serve with orange slices and a little syrup.