Individual Mini Chocoflans Recipe

When it comes to flan, some people prefer to keep things as simple as possible, allowing those creamy, custardy flavors to speak for themselves. Then there are those who will add chocolate to desserts wherever possible, and if you happen to fall into this group of chocolate lovers, then developer Kara Barrett's individual mini chocoflan recipe is one you might want to try. These mini chocoflans are exactly what they sound like: chocolate cake on the bottom, flan on top, in charming single-serve form to make them perfect as a special dessert for date nights or dinner parties.

While there's plenty to love about this dessert in terms of caramely and chocolatey flavors, the mix of textures is something that really makes it unique. "I love the texture contrast between the rich chocolate cake and the creamy, silky flan," Barrett says. She also loves how beautiful and elegant the chocoflans look once they're unmolded, something that your dinner guests (or family members) will surely appreciate as well. As an added bonus, Barrett notes, "This impossible cake is a lot of fun to make. You can see the chocolate cake immediately start to rise after you add the flan." And you can make these chocoflans in advance and store them in the fridge overnight, making them "a perfect bake-ahead treat." 

To keep this recipe from getting too complicated, you'll simply need a box of chocolate cake mix to account for the "choco" part of the dessert, along with an egg, water, and vegetable oil to make it into an actual batter. As for the flan part, you'll need another egg, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and optionally cream cheese. The only other ingredients you'll need are softened butter (for buttering the ramekins) and caramel sauce.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Generously butter 2 ramekins.

Pour a tablespoon of caramel sauce in each until the bottoms are coated. Set aside.

Add the cake mix, one egg, water, and vegetable oil to a small bowl.

Whisk together till smooth and set aside.

In another small bowl, whisk together the remaining egg, evaporated milk, condensed milk, cream cheese, if using, and vanilla till smooth.

Pour the chocolate cake batter into the ramekins, dividing it evenly between them.

Gently pour the flan mix over the cake mix, dividing it evenly between them.

Set the ramekins gently in a baking dish filled halfway with hot water.

Gently cover the ramekins with foil and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 45 minutes.

After chilling overnight, unmold the chocoflan by turning it upside down onto a plate and gently removing the ramekin. Gently use a butter knife to loosen the edges if needed.

Cover with more caramel and serve.

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When following along with this recipe, you likely noticed that cream cheese is mentioned in the ingredients and in a step, but it's optional. So, what are the benefits of adding (or not adding) cream cheese to the flan mixture? It really all comes down to what flavor profile you're looking for and what sort of texture you want your flan to have. "Cream cheese thickens the flan texture quite a bit and adds a tang reminiscent of cheesecake," Barrett explains.

On the other hand, if you choose to leave the cream cheese out, you'll end up with a more classic, custardy flan, and one that Barrett says is more delicate. If you're looking for a traditional approach to flan, leave the cream cheese out. But if a cheesecake-like flan sounds pretty good, then add the 3 tablespoons of cream cheese while mixing up the other flan ingredients. Be sure the cream cheese is at room temperature before mixing it into the flan ingredients, and once you mix it in, make sure it's mixed thoroughly so that no lumps remain.

If you're confused about how the flan layer ends up at the bottom of the ramekin even though you pour it over top the chocolate cake, you're not alone. Chocoflan, also known as Mexico's impossible cake, seems to truly pull off an impossible feat — that is, inverting itself while baking. So, yes, the impossible cake moniker is an apt one, though as it turns out, the inverted chocoflan phenomenon really just comes down to gravity. "Since the flan is naturally heavier than cake batter, it sinks while baking in the water bath," Barrett explains. But, before it bakes, the dense cake batter is strong enough to support the weight of the flan batter, making for a baking process that seems like nothing short of an impossible miracle.

Though we know that chocoflan is a Mexican dessert, the exact origin of the impossible cake is a bit unclear. There's a popular theory that Mexican chocoflan came about by way of French influence, a sort of fusion between French crème caramel, flan, and chocolate cake. Traditional Mexican chocoflan recipes typically call for using cajeta de celaya, a type of dulce de leche made with goat's milk. If you have cajeta in your baking repertoire, you can use it in this recipe in place of the plain caramel sauce.

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