A Thanksgiving Dessert That Will Steal The Show: Vietnamese-Inspired Chocoflan Recipe

Sweet Tooths, you've come to the right place!

Can you believe Thanksgiving is in just 2 weeks?? Even though we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Vietnam (which we have been missing out all the good foods the holiday has to offer aka kinda sad), I always take the opportunity to enjoy as many Thanksgiving feasts as I can while I am still living in the States. However, with an Asian twist, of course! That is the main reason why I included this Chocoflan recipe in my #anotherThanksgivingawayfromhome series. For those Thanksgiving pies lovers out there, why not surprise yourself and your guests with something "out-of-the-box" on the dessert table instead?

Level: Intermediate

Prep: 25 - 30 min

Cook: 40 - 50 min

Total: 1 h 20 min

Servings: 8 -10

My Chocoflan recipe inspiration: Flan is a must-try food in Hanoi, known for its complexity in tastes and textures. An expert approved flan is a flan that acquires a contrast in flavors. For example, the caramel sauce has to be perfectly caramelized (sweet yet slightly bitter) in order to balance out the creaminess of the flan. Texture-wise, a perfect plan should be bouncy and stable enough to retain its shape. The consistency is soft, almost melt in your mouth. OMG my mouth is salivating!!

The way we make flans is very different from other places in the world. For example, in Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, locals often made it with condensed milk, milk and eggs while in Puerto Rico, they made it with milk, eggs or sometimes coconut milk. With that said, if you compare the recipes, you can definitely tell the differences. Instead of using evaporated milk and condensed milk, which is easier and less time consuming, I purposely incorporate some custard techniques in order to get the consistency that I wanted. The flan itself should be the star of the dessert: soft, silky, bouncy, and melt-in-the-mouth.

At this point, you must be wondering: why not stick to something traditional? This dessert took me back to my first Thanksgiving in the States. Thanksgiving was a fairly new concept to me at the time, and it was kind of odd to think that America has this national holiday dedicated to eating and drinking. One week prior to the holiday, I was assigned to contribute a dessert for our potluck-style Thanksgiving dinner. And let me tell you, I was overwhelmed (given the fact that it was my first Thanksgiving ever)!! I stumbled across this Chocoflan recipe from Laura in the kitchen's food blog and decided to recreate my own Vietnamese-inspired version of Laura's Chocoflan. It turned out amazingly good and almost everyone asked for my recipe. They even named the recipe: Krystal's "Caramelized Pork Belly" recipe because of the similarities in the way both look. Till this point, I still strongly disagree!!!

Do you think they look similar? Not at all, right!! ^^ Let me know in the comment section (please say they don't look alike) :)

Without any further ado, let's grab the ingredients!!

What you will need:

Caramel Sauce

- 70gr sugar

- Water

- 1tsp lemon juice

Vanilla Flan

- 3 eggs and 2 yolks

- 70gr sugar

- 400ml whole milk and 150ml heavy cream

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- Pinch of salt

Chocolate Gateau

- 55gr all-purpose flour and 15gr cocoa powder

- 20gr vegetable oil

- 20gr whole milk

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 3 eggs

- 7gr sugar

- Pinch of salt

Let's get started, shall we?

Caramel Sauce

Step 1: Add sugar in a non-stick pan over medium heat and pour in water just enough to cover the sugar (usually 2-3 tbs)

Step 2: The sugar will start to melt and dissolve within 5 minutes or so. Keep an eye on our sugar-water mixture until it turns golden brown. Quickly stir in the lemon juice and pour the finished caramel sauce into a pre-greased bundt pan.

Vanilla Flan

Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, add eggs, egg yolks and sugar. Use a egg whisker to gently combine the egg mixture

Step 2: Bring milk and heavy cream to a gentle simmer. Make sure to keep it at a simmer and avoid boiling, milk burns easily!

Step 3: Slowly incorporate the milk and cream mixture into the egg and sugar mixture. Stir constantly to prevent any lumps.

Step 4: Strain the mixture, add salt, vanilla extract and set aside

Chocolate Gateau

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit

Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, sugar and salt using a hand-mixer until the mixture reaches ribbon stage

Step 3: Combine the oil and milk. Under slow speed, slowly incorporate into the batter

Step 4: Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, 1/3 at a time, using folding technique. Fold in dry ingredients with a spatula will trap extra air bubbles in the batter as well as retain as much of their volume as possible.

Let's bake!!

Step 1: Add the flan mixture into the bundt pan where you already added the caramel

Step 2: Pour the cake batter on top of our flan mixture.

Step 3: Cover the top with foil and bake the batter in a water bath for 40-50 minutes until inserted tooth pick comes out clean

Step 4: Let it cool at least one hour in the fridge before removing. Trust me, this way will make your removing step much easier and effortless!

The moment we have all been waiting for: remove from the bundt pan, serve and enjoy!!