Looking for good recipe for Brazilian flan

This 4th of July, my husband and I are hosting a pig roast for my parents' 45th wedding anniversary. We are planning to make flan for dessert. I was speaking with a fellow LTHer who suggested seeking out a recipe for Brazilian flan as opposed to Cuban flan. If anyone has a good recipe for the former or could explain the differences between the two, I would be much obliged.

A recipe from Cafe Brazil, by Michael Bateman, has the following ingredients. I haven't tried it, so no guarantees!

Coconut Flan/Quindo

4 whole free-range eggs
4 free-range egg yolks
1 pound (4 cups) confectioners' sugar
3 1/2 T butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
1 1/4 cups freshly grated coconut or dried shredded coconut
granulated sugar for dusting

Please see Mr. Bateman's book for the cooking procedure.

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I'm sure there are other LTH-ers who know more about both Cuban and Brazilian flans than I (where is JeffB?), but if Bateman's recipe is typically Brazilian, I'd say the striking thing is the absence of milk in the recipe.

Actually, Jeff B was the LTHer to which I referred. He wasn't clear as to the difference between the two recipes.

i haven't been able to find any discernable difference between the cuban and brazilian flan recipes i've found online.. so maybe there is no difference..

-ed

Okay, I agree with Ed: looking further in the same Brazilian cookbook I found a recipe for Caramela, a standard flan recipe, about which the author says, "This is the most loved dessert in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, where it is otherwise known as flan. Served chilled in small cups or souffle dishes, it is found in every eating place, and sold off the street in outlets such as leiterias (milk shops)."

Anyone who has eaten flan in Brazil remember special regional variations?

About the differences between Cuban and Brazilian flan:

First, there are probably more different recipes for flan, among Cubans, than all of the Virgin Mary statues in West Tampa and Hialeha combined. Whole eggs only, yolks only, a combination, twelve eggs, two eggs, condensed milk, cream cheese, baked, cooked in a double boiler, cooked in a rice cooker (interesting), always cinnamon, never cinnamon, etc.

So, there are discernable and pretty drastic differences even within the sphere of Cuban flan recipes.

However, there has been one constant that I have noted, whether eating flan in Brazil, or Fogo de Chao, or La Parilla (the Humboldt Park place that still hasn't re-opened: Cathy, what's up with them?): don't tell my in laws or friends in Florida, but Brazilan flan is always better. And more consistent. I'm not talking Chicago pizza NY pizza differences here, I mean subtle differences in texture and firmness. Maybe it's just been the luck of the draw, or maybe it's because the Brazilan cook is likely closer to the original tradition and technique.

PS, looking at Amata's recipe, I would say most definitely that the lack of any milk product departs significantly from what most Cuban home cooks (and, in my more limited experience, Mexican and Gualemalan home cooks) do. Maybe that's it. Also, I despise flan de coco, flan de chocolate, flan de canela etc. (that's just me). Simple is best for flan.

For comparison, here's a typical Cuban recipe from a site of the kind I'd like to see for other ethnicities:

http://icuban.com/food/flan2.html

(the Humboldt Park place that still hasn't re-opened: Cathy, what's up with them?):

The place is still papered up. I keep hoping the partners did not blow up, that they are victims of a lax contractor. When RST, Erik and I toured their interior in April, it looked very promising. I'll let you know as I know. I hope our few dinners are not a memory we will need to cherish forever.

To keep life more interesting, the Filipino's also have flan. Of course, they were under Spain's thumb for quite a while.

Cathy,

I'm sure you have her book, but does Maria Kijac include any flan recipes (assuredly a dumb question) and if so, does she distinguish between regions?

And Vietnamese places always seem to have flan. Ba Le and Dong Ky (sp?) always have it. What's the connection, French or Spanish-Filipino?

Well, here are the ingredients for the caramela recipe from Cafe Brazil, in case there is some discernible difference in proportion that goes along with JeffB's impressions. (Though I must point out that the author, Michael Bateman, is an Englishman, so who knows...!)

3/4 cup + 2 T sugar
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract [or, if you have a vanilla bean, heat it with the milk instead]
2 whole free-range eggs
6 free-range egg yolks
tiny pinch of salt

Again, please consult Bateman's book for instructions on combining these elements.

My recommendation is to search google for "flan brasil" and then use google's translate feature to convert the recipes to english.

That'll at least give you the ingredients (although one translation called for "4 dangerous eggs"), and you can do standard flan prep from there. Most of the ones I see call for milk and/or evaporated and/or condensed milk.

at the very least you'll enjoy reading the butchered translations. hours of fun, I tell you.

-ed

In Brasilian homes I most often saw flan made in a tube pan, like an angel-food cake pan. Also mostly included condensed milk.