Name: Keto Pumpkin Flan
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 flans
Ingredients: 2 oz. sweetener; 1/2 oz. gold sugar substitute (optional); 2/3 cup coconut milk (full fat); 1 large egg; 1 large egg yolk; 3 oz. pumpkin puree; 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract; 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg; 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

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During this beautiful autumn, I have been sitting around the house going kind of crazy. Not lazy, just a sprained ankle. Ugh, I want to return to my exercise regime possibly yesterday. I feel like a pudding on the couch. Getting softer by a minute. Or do I feel like a flan? Anyhow, to bring something good out of the situation, I’ve taken a little bit more time to attend to MySweetKeto and our readers. So, suddenly, a recipe for Keto Pumpkin Flan popped to my mind.

What to do with all the pumpkins?

Honestly, it was not that much all of the sudden to decide on the recipe. As every autumn, I’m stacked with delicious pumpkins. My sweet grandma grows them in her garden. When I have the time, I make the kitchen orange all over – cutting the pumpkins, baking them, and then processing in the blender.

So I end up with all this fresh pumpkin puree. I cook some pumpkin broccoli soup. I feed half of the extended family with it. But I’ve still go the puree. Well, the Low carb pumpkin pie is delicious, I should make some. And maybe, just maybe I will have the time for the weekend to bake our favorite – Keto pumpkin cheesecake. But I’ve still got some leftover puree. Well, I will freeze it in batches but I feel the urge to use it while it’s fresh!

Being home too much these days, at least I feel like creating something new, instead of baking same ol’pie. So what else pumpkin something is out there? Pumpkin flan! Admittedly, I’ve also been a bit inclined towards making pumpkin crème brûlée but then decided to go for Keto pumpkin flan. The two desserts don’t differ much if you think about it.

How to make Keto Pumpkin Flan

Preheat the oven to 360°F (180°C). Arrange 4 three-inch ramekins inside a baking pan. Grease the ramekins lightly.
In a small saucepan, heat 1 oz. sweetener over medium heat, stirring constantly until it dissolves and becomes fluid. Add gold sugar substitute (optional) for brown color and caramel flavor. Spoon approximately 3 tsp. of the “caramel” into each of the ramekins and make sure it covers the bottoms of ramekins while it is still runny.
In a small saucepan, heat the coconut milk. Turn the heat down to a low simmer.
Bring around 2 pints of water to a boil.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, the rest of the sweetener, and the spices. Whisk the pumpkin puree into the egg mixture.
Fold the egg mixture into the warm coconut milk.
Distribute the mixture among the ramekins and place the baking pan on the middle oven shelf. Pour the hot water into the baking pan until it reaches about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for approximately 35 minutes.
Let the ramekins cool. Place a dessert plate on top of each ramekin and flip over; The flan should slide out with the “caramel” landing on top of it and flow onto the sides of the dish.

If you have trouble getting the flan out of the ramekin, do not worry; A lot of us run into the issue. Try sliding a sharp knife around the edge of the flan and see if it helps.

If you don’t have any gold version of a low carb sweetener, you may succeed by adding some cinnamon to the melted erythritol. It will not exactly help with the caramel taste but will add to the brownish color.

Do you like flan?

Honestly, traveling through Spain and Portugal back in the non-keto times, I didn’t fancy their flan much. I don’t want to offend anyone, but the Spanish are just not the greatest dessert-makers. At least not in the restaurants (Basque country excluded). The situation is different when it comes to most of the Portuguese desserts. Still, whenever I had to choose a dessert in a restaurant in those countries, I only fell for the flan trap a couple of times and then stopped making the mistake. For me, it was simply never worth it. I would rather go for a whiskey cake in Spain. Or a pavlova! Oh my, I get pre-diabetes just thinking about pavlova cake. It is delicious, no matter what. I’m happy that my relationship with flan has changed a great deal since I’ve started making keto versions myself.

Anyhow, back to the subject. If you like flan, let me know. If you try the Keto pumpkin flan, let me know as well. Leave a comment below. Because Keto Flan rice pudding has been on my to-do list for a while now and I hope it gets some attention from fellow low-carbers and ketoers.