Crème caramel

Crème caramel (French: [kʁɛm kaʁaˈmɛl]), flan, or caramel pudding is a custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to crème brûlée, which is pudding with a hard caramel top. The dish is eaten throughout the world.

History

Crème caramel used to be ubiquitous in European restaurants; food historian Alan Davidson remarks:

Etymology of names

Both crème caramel (French 'caramel pudding') and flan are French names, but flan has come to have different meanings in different regions.

In Spanish-speaking countries and in North America, flan refers to crème caramel. This was originally a Spanish usage, but the dish is now best known in the United States in a Latin American context. Elsewhere, including in Britain, a flan is a type of tart somewhat like a quiche.

The Modern English word flan comes from French flan, from Old French flaon, in turn from Medieval Latin fladonem, derived from the Old High German flado, a sort of flat cake, probably from an Indo-European root for 'flat' or 'broad'. The North American sense of flan as crème caramel was borrowed from Latin American Spanish.