Chai Tea Flan

Summary: One of my mom's best desserts is her caramel custard though I always preferred it minus the caramelized base. That eggy, smooth, velvety flan was the most decadently simple treat. I love a hearty chai tea and created this riff on her recipe using a spiced tea milk in place of the regular milk and nutmeg. 

Yield: makes 4 ramekins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups 2% milk
• 3 green cardamom pods, gently cracked
• 6 whole cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 Earl Grey tea bag
• 2 eggs
• scant 1/4 cup vanilla or regular sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375° Fahrenheit. Fill a 9x13" baking pan about a third of the way with water and place carefully in the oven to heat concurrently.

In a saucepan, pour the milk and heat over medium heat until roughly 140 degrees. Stir regularly. Add in the cracked cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg and whisk. Cut open the tea bag and dump the loose tea into the milk mixture. Whisk to combine, remove saucepan from heat, cover and let steep 8-10 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth. Reserve.

In a mixing bowl, gently beat the eggs until the yolks and whites are combined. Whisk in the sugar, extract and salt. Slowly whisk in the warm milk. When everything is well combined, pour carefully into four ramekins and place those carefully into the pan of warm water in your oven. Bake 30-40 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean. In my oven these took 35 mins.

You can serve these just warm or you can put them in the fridge until cold and serve that way.