Flan

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place ¾ cups of sugar in a heavy duty pot over medium heat. Stir constantly until the sugar melts and becomes caramelized. The sugar will become golden brown and thick.

Suggestion: wear oven mitts for the next step. Immediately pour it into a 9 inch baking dish. Tilt the dish from side to side so that the sugar coats the sides as well as the bottom of the dish. The sugar will harden very quickly once removed from fire so try to work quickly. Don't worry if most of the sugar pools in the bottom of the dish instead of coating the sides. Set it aside. Now go wash the pot in which you melted the sugar. If you don't do it now, the stuff will harden and become difficult to clean. Or you can soak it overnight in water like I do, and the hardened sugar will dissolve.

Combine the milk, the rest of the sugar, the vanilla, and salt. Bring to a boil uncovered. Lower heat and continue cooking until the milk mixture has been reduced by half. Turn off the heat and cover the mixture so it remains warm.

Vigorously beat the eggs and the egg yolks. Mix the corn starch with the water. Add to the egg mixture. Slowly add this mixture to the milk mixture stirring constantly. Slowly pour the combined mixture into the baking dish that has the caramelized sugar. Cover it lightly with aluminum foil. Bake in a water bath for 35-40 minutes. When done, refrigerate until serving time.

To bake something in a water bath you take the baking dish that contains the stuff you are cooking and place it in larger empty baking dish. Then you add water to the larger dish. Take for example a flowerpot and the dish below it that collects water; only in this case you are adding water to the dish underneath and not the actual flower. Is this step really necessary? Well yes and no. There will be a definite difference in texture and a slight different in taste if you skip it.

Note on pan size: When I make this dish I use a metal mixing bowl. Hence it's deep, but no where near 9 inches. Don't worry too much about the size; just make sure it's large enough to hold the mixture. If appearance is important to you do not use a square baking dish. Once removed from a square dish the shape tends to fall apart.