Gluten Free Maple Flan is a wonderful nutrient-rich treat!

I love custardly desserts with all that creamy wonderfulness! You'll love this gluten free maple flan too–it's so smooth and decadent, and has lots of healthy fats to help bring down the glycemic index, even though it's a dessert! I first had it at the Wise Traditions conference this past fall in Texas and wanted to recreate it at home. See my conference recap video here (after the ad):

Each year at the Wise Traditions/Weston A. Price Foundation conference, Maureen Diaz from GodsGoodTable.com, my friend from way back, is in charge of the food–from planning, to pre-prepping, to transporting it, to training the hotel chefs, and so much more that I'm probably not even aware of, and she completely knocks it out the park every. single. time. Here are a few photos she shared:

So the first day we had maple flan for dessert at the chapter leaders' meeting and it was heavenly. She said she'd get me her recipes, but I knew she just got home and didn't want to bother her right away, so I found some recipes online–I combined them, changed things, and figured it out. It turned out great and thankfully, it tasted just as wonderful as hers did!

Skip to the recipe below, or click here to check out the video interview I did with Maureen!

Here's a pic of Maureen's flan:

And here's a photo of the 9″ version that I made recently (see further below) and it's easier/faster than making individual ones!

Print Recipe

Gluten Free Maple Flan

This creamy, decadent gluten free maple flan is the perfect dessert for any occasion! This was inspired by Maureen Diaz's recipe at the Wise Traditions conference in Texas, November 2021. See her recipe below that is easier though because it's all in one 9" pan, and it has no extra sugar, just maple syrup!

Servings: 9 servings

Author: Kelly the Kitchen Kop inspired by Maureen Diaz

Ingredients

12 Tablespoons + 2 more Tablespoons separately of real maple syrup
2 cups whole milk, we used raw from the farm
1.5 cups real cream/whipping cream--make sure it's NOT ultra-pasteurized, see #1 here to read more
8 eggs (8 whole eggs plus 4 egg yolks), best is from a farmer you trust
1/2-2/3 cups sugar (organic cane sugar or organic palm sugar)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon sea salt + a pinch more
Avocado spray or soft butter for greasing pans

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325*.
Put 9 ramekins into 2 baking dishes/pans, like a 9x13 or 11x14. Spray each ramekin with avocado oil or use soft butter--then pour 4 teaspoons (1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon) maple syrup into the bottom of each one.
Heat milk and cream in a saucepan carefully, on low-medium, until it just starts to boil. Don't let it burn. Remove from heat.
In a bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and 2 more Tablespoons maple syrup. Keep whisking as you slowly pour the warm milk and cream into this mixture. Next pour all of this through a fine-mesh sieve into a pitcher to get any lumps out. From the pitcher, pour the custard equally into the ramekins.
Carefully set the baking dishes into the oven. Fill that same pitcher with very hot water. (I used our hot water tap, I love that thing.) Pour water into the baking dishes around the ramekins until it's almost all of the way up the sides.
Bake until the center of the custard feels set and doesn't jiggle. I started with 50 minutes but ended up leaving them for another 32 minutes! Just see how it does in your oven.
Carefully remove from the oven and let cool. Once you can grab the ramekins, put them onto a towel on the countertop, and empty the water from the baking dishes. Refrigerate the custards until time to serve, a few hours is best.
When ready to serve, use a sharp knife around the edge of each flan (to loosen the edges so it comes out easily), then put a plate on top, and invert the plate and the ramekin, lift off the ramekin and serve.

Notes

This is so interesting! I ended up asking Maureen for her recipe after all, just to compare…

This seems easier since it all goes in one 9″ round pan and also has less steps, I'll try hers next time! UPDATE: this really IS so fast and easy and turned out perfectly!

Maple Flan serves 12:

1 3/4 cups dark maple syrup (I just used regular)
3 large eggs
5 large egg yolks
2 1/2 cups cream (remember, if you don't have raw cream, for sure never buy ultra-pasteurized dairy, which you can tell by the use-by date--if it's 2 months away, don't buy it!)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat oven to 325*. Bring 1 cup of the maple syrup to a boil in a heavy pan over medium heat, turn down and reduce to 2/3 cup. Cool until the foam is reduced, pour into an 9″ round pan or ramekins to coat the bottom.

Gently whisk the remaining ingredients so as not to stir up foam. Pour into the baking dish or ramekins (I greased the pan first) and gently place in a bain-de-mer--that's where you place your pan inside a larger vessel, filled with hot water. Place in the center of the oven for about 50-60 minutes, until the edges are set but the center is still wobbly. (I left mine in for more like 75 minutes--it was a beautiful deep golden brown on top and still a little wobbly.) Carefully remove from the water and cool, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Run a knife around the edges so it'll come out easily, then turn over onto a dessert plate to serve. (All of the maple syrup didn't come out so we just spooned the extra thick and wonderful maple syrup on top as we served it.)

***Find a GAPS-friendly version from my friend Sarah here!

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