Cooking with sugar is a gamble. The surest way to ruin a sweet dessert is by exposing it to heat. The result: booziness, bitterness, and an overall bad taste. Fortunately, most flan recipes don’t require heating.
And the good news is that once you know how to store flan, you can keep it at room temperature for several days as well as in the freezer for up to three months. Here are our top tips on how to best preserve your cream-based desserts…
Keep your flan refrigerated
Most of the time, flan is meant to be eaten with a cup of coffee or a glass of chilled wine. Keeping it out of the fridge will make your dessert go bad much faster. Just rinse the ramekin with hot water, dry it well, and use it immediately.
Store flan in the freezer
This is the best way to preserve flan, especially if you want to make it last for several months. Make sure you label your flan with the date. Freeze it in an airtight container. When you’re ready to eat it, thaw it in the fridge overnight.
That way, it will be just as good as the day you froze it. No more, “This tastes so old!”
Keep your flan at room temperature
This is best for flan that you’re going to eat right away. Don’t leave it on the kitchen counter or in the back of your fridge, though. That’s just asking for it to go bad. It’s best to keep your flan in the cupboard or on the table so you can easily access it.
Wrapping your flan up nice and tight
You can keep your flan in an airtight container for up to a week. But the longer you store it, the more air it will be exposed to. That means it will spoil much faster.
The best way to avoid this is to tightly wrap your flan up before putting it in the fridge. You can use aluminium foil, parchment paper, or a plastic wrap.
This can keep the flan from absorbing too much air, which could make it go bad much faster.
Avoid the UV rays
Just like with any other type of food, exposing flan to sunlight can make it go bad much faster. So keep it out of sight, and in the fridge if possible. This will ensure that it doesn’t get messed up by UV rays.
Summary
There are a few ways to best preserve flan, depending on what type of dessert you’re working with. Keep it refrigerated if you want to eat it right away, or store it in an airtight container in the freezer if you want it to last longer.
You can also keep it at room temperature if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of freezing it. And the best tip of all? Make sure to keep your flan out of the direct sunlight. This can ruin it much faster.