Low-Calorie Pumpkin Flan

This is a great low-calorie alternative to the regular flan recipe. You can get the calories down by taking out the usual ingredients such as cream and half-and-half and replacing them with low-fat milk – keeping all of the rich tastes but decreasing the fat and calorie count.

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 3/4 cups low-fat milk
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2 tbsp. water
• 5 large eggs
• 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 pinch ground mace
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 tbsp. salt
• 1/8 tbsp ground cloves
• 1 vanilla bean

Preparation:

1. First, make sure that the oven is preheated. It needs to get to 300 degrees F, which is about 150 degrees C.
2. Put eight ramekins into a baking dish.
3. Stir together the sugar and water in a pan that’s being held over medium heat. Keep stirring until the mixture gets a dark amber color – this will take somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes.
4. Pour that mixture into the ramekins.
5. Whisk together the cinnamon, salt, ginger, mace, cloves, and eggs. Add a small amount of sugar, about 1/3 of a cup, and mix all that together.
6. Now add in the pumpkin puree.
7. Heat up the milk over medium heat until it begins to bubble.
8. Put the vanilla bean seeds and pod in the milk and let it soak for 10 to 15 minutes. Take the mixture and slowly drain the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture and whisk it again.
9. Pour that custard into the ramekins.
10. Fill the baking dish with hot water halfway up the side of the ramekins and cover the baking dish with aluminum foil.
11. Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven.
12. Remove ramekins, let them cool and then cover them. Refrigerate them for at least 5 hours.