Ube Leche Flan Recipe – leche flan is one of many classic desserts found in the Philippines. When referring to ube leche flan, it basically means an ube flavored version of the dish. If you don’t know leche flan, it is an egg custard with a caramel top. With this dish, you basically add ube flavoring to the dish. Ube is a highly popular flavoring for plenty of Filipino desserts and adds an earthiness to different sweet desserts. If you are interested in how exactly this egg custard tastes with ube flavoring, this is one recipe to try:
Ube Leche Flan
Equipment
- 3 medium Llanera and foil for coverage
Ingredients
Ingredients for Custard
- 8 large egg yolks
- 1 can of Alaska Sweetened Condensed Milk or 300ml condensed milk
- 1 can of Alaska Evaporated Milk or 370ml evaporated milk
- 1-2 tbsp. Ube Powder
- 1-2 drops violet food coloring optional
Ingredients for Caramel
- 6 tbsp. sugar 2 tbsp. per Llanera/tin
Instructions
Process for Caramel
- Pour 2 tablespoons into each of the medium Llaneras
- Put the stove at a low heat and heat the Llanera over it until the sugar turns golden brown or into a honey-like color
- Remove the Llanera to let the caramel cool and repeat the process with the remaining Llaneras.
- Once all three Llaneras have a caramel base, set them aside until it's time to pour the custard.
Steamer Prep
- Pour 1.5 liters of water into your steamer and bring it to a boil over a low heat.
- If you don't have any aluminum foil to cover the tins, an alternative option would be to have the lid covered with cloth in order to catch any water drippings and prevent watery custard.
Process for Custard
- Combine egg yolks, condensed milk, evaporated milk and mix well.
- Once you've mixed the ingredients, add the ube powder mix and stir until is fully incorporated into the mix. When that happens, add the violet food coloring as needed until you achieve a rich violet color.
- An alternative option for the previous step would be to add 1 tbsp. Ube extract or ¼ cup Ube Halaya
- After fully mixing the ingredients, strain the mixture into another bowl. You'll want to strain it at least twice before pouring the mixture into the 3 Llaneras
- Cover the tins with an aluminium foil and steam over low heat for about 25-30 minutes.
- Test the custard by inserting either a toothpick or bamboo skewer and see if it comes out clean. If it does, turn off the heat and transfer the Llaneras to a cooling rack.
- After cooling the leche flan, place them in the fridge to further firm them up for an easy transfer later on.
- Once the leche flan is fully firm, you should be able to run a knife at the edge of Llanera then flip the ube flan on a serving plate or plastic container.
What to Know about Leche Flan
The traditional leche flan, to boil it down, is a caramel custard consisting of milk, sugar, and eggs, with the addition of vanilla flavoring. They are usually cooked in a Llanera, which is an oval shaped tin mold traditionally used for leche flan. The dessert first came about during the Spanish colonization period and currently can be found in other desserts, mainly halo-halo. There is no certainty on where ube leche flan came from. However, ube is a popular flavor so it’s no surprise there is ube version of the classic dessert.
Want to try out other ube flavored desserts? Check out our “Ube Biko Recipe” and “Ube Ensaymada Recipe.” For a dessert that features both ube and leche flan, check out “Ube Leche Cake.” Otherwise, you can explore other desserts like “Halo-halo.”
