Egg Pudding Vs Flan: What's The Difference? (2024)

Jonathan Kesh

·3-min read

Pale, wobbly desserts are pretty common around the world, with flan and egg pudding popular choices. Most custards and puddings are made from eggs and cream, which are not difficult ingredients to find. But if you're interested in making your own flan or egg pudding, you should know what you're working with. What itcomes down to is this: Flan is a custard and egg pudding is usually a pudding — but not always. Caramel is also involved, but we'll get into that later.

Both custard and pudding are sweet, goopy desserts made mostly from cream and then cooked. However, custard (and therefore flan) is made with eggs and sweetened milk alongside the cream, and flan itself includes caramel. On the other hand, pudding is made with sugar and some kind of starch to thicken the mixture (usually flour or cornstarch). It gets tricky because egg pudding does include eggs too, but bear with us: In egg pudding, eggs are used only for flavoring and not as a thickening agent. In custards (and therefore flan), the egg itself is the thickening agent that provides the jelly-like texture.

Read more: Cake Hacks Every Baker Will Wish They Knew Sooner

Get Your Puddings Right

But maybe you're not here for those smaller details — you'd like to know what to expect when they get served to you. Flan is a dessert made by taking eggs, milk, sugar, and sometimes vanilla and adding it into a base of caramelized sugar (which is really just a fancy term for burnt sugar). Then you bake the entire mixture in the oven and, when it's done, you flip the flan over so that the caramel ends up on the top.

Egg pudding has a few different versions depending on whether you're in China, Japan, or elsewhere. A common Chinese egg pudding involves steaming up eggs, sugar, and water or milk on the stove to create a silky dessert that's much less firm than flan. But they're not all that different in the end. In Japan, the most popular "egg pudding" is called purin. But despite being called pudding, it's technically custard, and it's a regional variant of flan.

The Flan-Tastic Voyage

Egg Pudding Vs Flan: What's The Difference? (2)

However, it's all complicated: The term "créme caramel" is often used interchangeably with sweet flan, especially in the United States, but elsewhere they're slightly different. In some parts of the world, "flan" and "egg pudding" also get used interchangeably — this is just how language works over such a large scale. But what we commonly know of as flan and egg pudding, at least in the U.S., come from different continents.

Flan dates all the way back to the Roman Empire, where ancient Romans cooked it up while experimenting with eggs. The dish has traveled quite a bit over the centuries, eventually becomingpopular in Latin America when it was brought over by Spanish colonists. Egg pudding was introduced toJapan in the 1800s (eventually leading to purin, meaning "pudding"), and several Chinese egg puddings rose up during the Qing dynasty. Cooked egg and cream desserts are still popular around much of the world today and they're not too difficult to whip up on your own.

Read the original article on Daily Meal.

Egg Pudding Vs Flan: What's The Difference? (2024)

FAQs

Egg Pudding Vs Flan: What's The Difference? ›

However, custard (and therefore flan) is made with eggs and sweetened milk alongside the cream, and flan itself includes caramel. On the other hand, pudding is made with sugar and some kind of starch to thicken the mixture (usually flour or cornstarch).

What's the difference between egg pudding and custard? ›

While most custard and pudding recipes both typically call for eggs, the main difference is that pudding uses a starch for thickening, whereas custard's thickening agent is the egg itself (or egg yolk, in most instances). Custard's texture also tends to be firmer than pudding.

What is egg pudding also known as? ›

Egg pudding, also known as custard pudding, is a classic dessert that has been enjoyed for generations. It is made by combining eggs, milk, and sugar, and then baking or steaming the mixture until it sets into a smooth, creamy texture.

What's the difference between flan and purin? ›

Purin (プリン) is a custard dessert made from eggs, milk, and sugar, and covered with a thin layer of rich caramel sauce on top. It's basically a Japanese take on crème caramel, also known as flan, custard pudding, or caramel pudding.

Is flan more like jello or pudding? ›

“Leche Flan” is the Filipino version of Crème brûlée and is also known as Crème caramel. The main difference with this Filipino dessert is that leche flan is Jello-like in consistency, while crème brûlée is pudding-like. Another difference is how the leche flan is cooked.

Does egg pudding taste like flan? ›

Both custard and pudding are sweet, goopy desserts made mostly from cream and then cooked. However, custard (and therefore flan) is made with eggs and sweetened milk alongside the cream, and flan itself includes caramel.

What's the difference between egg custard and flan? ›

Egg custard ( pudding) is egg, milk &/ or cream, sugar and usually vanilla. Flan or creame caramel is egg custard with Carmelized sugar in the bottom of the pan that the custard is baked in. Most often flan is served inverted.

What are the three types of pudding? ›

Puddings made for dessert can be boiled and steamed puddings, baked puddings, bread puddings, batter puddings, milk puddings or even jellies. In some Commonwealth countries these puddings are known as custards (or curds) if they are egg-thickened, as blancmange if starch-thickened, and as jelly if gelatin-based.

What does egg pudding mean in English? ›

Meaning of over-egg the pudding in English

to spoil something by trying too hard to improve it: There are some great moments, but the writer tends to over-egg the pudding with metaphors and similes when all she's describing is a group of women getting through the day.

What is called black pudding? ›

Black pudding is a distinct regional type of blood sausage originating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is made from pork or occasionally beef blood, with pork fat or beef suet, and a cereal, usually oatmeal, oat groats, or barley groats.

Why is flan unhealthy? ›

Flan does contain high amount of calcium but the cholesterol and amount of sugar over powers the calcium benefits. One serving (3.5 oz / 100g) of flan has close to 36 grams sugar. It is and seem quite high until you compare it with a can of soda which contains about 44g of sugar.

Is crème brûlée basically flan? ›

The former has that signature crackly sugar crust on top, and the latter has the gooey, soft caramel top. Crème brûlée is served within mini soufflé dishes, and flan is served out of the baking dish, standing alone. And it's also the culture each dessert hails from: French and Latin American cuisines, respectively.

What is another name for flan? ›

Crème caramel (French: [kʁɛm kaʁamɛl]), flan, caramel pudding, condensed milk pudding or caramel custard is a custard dessert with a layer of clear caramel sauce.

Is flan a Mexican or Spanish dessert? ›

The flan's history is traced back to ancient Rome when egg surpluses were transformed into custards to produce both sweet and savory tastes. The Spaniards took it to America, where it became a delicacy. Due to the Mexican's heavy influence on the recipe evolved there and became today's sweet staple.

What dessert is flan similar to? ›

Flan can refer to two different things: either a baked custard dessert topped with caramel similar to the French crème caramel, or a tart-like sweet pastry with a filling called a fruit flan.

Where is flan most commonly eaten? ›

Though flan is most often associated with Spain and Latin America, this creamy, custardy, caramel-topped delight can be found all over the world. And because you can make it small and personalized, it's the perfect dish to customize for yourself and lucky friends.

What are the 3 types of custard? ›

3 Varieties of Custard

There are three main varieties of custard: baked custard, stirred custard, and steamed custard. The first two are both popular in Western cuisine. Baked custard is typically firmer and made with whole eggs, while stirred custards can be much runnier and often only contain the yolks.

Is British custard the same as American pudding? ›

American puddings are closer to what the Brits would call "custard." A British pudding is a dish, savory or sweet, that's cooked by being boiled or steamed in something: a dish, a piece of cloth, or even animal intestine.

Does pudding taste like custard? ›

What's the difference between pudding and custard? Both of them are sweet, creamy and thick. The differences between them: Pudding is made with sweetened milk or cream-based mixture thickened with corn starch or flour that is cooked on the stove. Custards are milk or cream-based and uses eggs.

Can I use pudding instead of custard? ›

It's a spectacular substitute in recipes that normally call for cooking eggs and dairy to make a custard (like pastry cream).

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