Spice up your classic creme caramel and impress your guests this holiday season with this simple to make, yet deliciously sophisticated Poached Apple & Cinnamon Creme Caramel (Apple and Cinnamon Flan)! Creme caramel, flan, caramel flan, caramel pudding… whatever you call it, it’s the perfect dessert out there, at least in Mr K’s opinion. It’s one of our favorite custard desserts! We’ve been going a little crazy with these delicious custards at home these days, trying out different flavor combos of my easy creme caramel recipe (like this coffee creme caramel) as well. What I have for you guys today takes this beautiful and classic dessert to a whole new level in terms of flavor. This is Poached Apple & Cinnamon Creme Caramel (or Apple and Cinnamon Flan), a mash-up of two of my favorite desserts – apple pie filling and creme caramel. Deliciously creamy, velvety, silky-soft custard, infused with cinnamon and topped with apple flavored caramel and poached apple slices. How good is all that? Like you wouldn’t freaking believe it! The base of this delicious custard is my standard creme caramel recipe that I have previously published. It’s an unbelievably easy dessert to make, yet SO delightful to eat. And you can easily make it ahead for guests. Just keep them in the fridge until you need to serve. Then you simply unmold them on to a dish and serve.
How this spiced creme caramel is different from the classic
One adjustment that I made to that recipe here (apart from making a spiced creme caramel by adding cinnamon of course) is in how I made the caramel sauce (the one that you pour into the mold before you add the custard). Instead of water, I used apple juice (apple cider) to add apple flavor to the caramel. So unlike in that recipe, here you have to wait until the caramel turns a slightly darker amber color before you add it to your ramekins/dishes. This is because the apple juice is amber colored to begin with (unlike water in the basic recipe). Also, the caramel doesn’t harden completely here, and stays a little sticky because of the apple juice addition. However this does NOT affect the final product in anyway. This apple cinnamon flan is going to be all kinds of amazing!
Recipe highlights
The apple flavor comes through unbelievably well in this apple flan. The apple caramel infuses into the custard a little as it bakes and on top of that (quite literally), you have the apple flavored caramel topping. But hey, I didn’t stop there. I took it a step further and poached apple slices in caramel and then piled them on top of the baked custard too! So damn gooooood. So really, unless you’ve gone taste blind to apple, there’s just no way you’re going to miss that apple flavor in this dessert. And then of course we have the custard itself. The cinnamon custard. I wanted to give it a warm flavor profile without it being too overpowering or without drowning out or competing with the apple flavor of the sauce, which is why I decided to spice it up a little with cinnamon. The custard is insanely creamy and delicious, and has no eggy feel to it (which I find very off-putting in creme caramel). So imagine this beautiful Apple Cinnamon Creme Caramel, bathed in delicious apple flavored caramel sauce and then topped with poached apple slices and maybe a dollop of whipped cream, on a gorgeous little dish… Maybe Mr K was on to something. This just might be the perfect dessert to impress your guests this holiday season. So easy, so versatile, yet sophisticated in both flavor and texture. If you liked this recipe don’t forget to subscribe for new (and free) recipes and updates by entering your email address below (and get all these recipes delivered straight to your inbox), so you don’t miss out on a thing. You can find me on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST and GOOGLE-PLUS too.
