Tocino del Cielo: Milk-less flan

Served during this year's Mother's Day Buffet at The Promenade at Days Hotel Iloilo is what I love to call as Leche Flan Bites. At first I thought that leche flan and tocino del cielo are somewhat the same but then Googling about it, I was enlightened.

Tocino de Cielo literally means "bacon from heaven" but obviously it contains no bacon. The dessert originated in the Andalusian region of Spain in the town of Jerez de la Fontera that specializes in sherry production. In the sherry-making tradition, egg whites were used to clarify the Spanish wine With so much egg yolk at their disposal, they were donated to the nuns and with "God's guidance", tocino del cielo was born.

Very similar to leche flan but these two desserts are made with very different ingredients. Leche flan is made with whole eggs, and milk and/or cream while tocino de cielo is made only with egg yolks, sugar and water. The combination of (lesser) ingredients leads to an extremely light and tender custard – much lighter than the traditional leche flan.

Here's the recipe I got from SpainRecipes

INGREDIENTS

6 egg yolks

9 oz sugar

1 fl. oz water

For the caramel

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoons water

PREPARATION

Put the sugar in a saucepan with the water and heat until the syrup goes golden brown.

Cover a baking tin evenly and put to one side. Put the sugar and water in an earthenware dish and heat until the syrup goes stringy.

Beat the egg yolks and slowly add the syrup, stirring with sticks. Strain and pour into the caramelised tin.

Cook in bain-marie in the oven at 150º for around 20 minutes.

When the tocino has set, remove from the oven, leave to cool and take it out of the tin.

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FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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