Boba Flan

Makes: 8 flans (depending on size)

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients

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450ml thick cream

250ml milk

8 black tea bags

100g caster sugar

2 egg yolks

3 eggs

¼ cup brown sugar syrup (as a substitute for caramel, from https://bubbleteaclub.com.au).

½ cup tapioca pearls (from https://bubbleteaclub.com.au)

350ml water

Method

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1. For the flan: preheat oven to 160 degrees. In a saucepan add the cream, milk, salt and teabags. Bring to a simmer and remove. Let it sit for 30 minutes for the black tea flavour to infuse. You also might want to squeeze these out every now and then to check the strength of your flavour.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, yolks and caster sugar. Slowly whisk in half of the milk/cream mix, then pour this mix back into the milk/cream and continue whisking until incorporated. Strain into a bowl.

3. In ramekins, spoon in the brown sugar syrup. I used about 3 tsp in each ramekin. This will form the base for when you invert the flans. Pour the mix into the ramekins and divide between. Place these into a deep baking dish (I used a lasagne tray), and fill with water to come up halfway the sides of the ramekins.

4. Bake until set, but still slightly wobbly in the middle, about 30 minutes. Remove and cool, and then chill overnight.

5. For the boba, in a saucepan bring water to a boil. Add the pearls in and cook on a low flame, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes until desired chewiness. Drain water and set aside for serving.

6. To serve, heat a saucepan with water until warm. Gently lower the ramekin in and hold in the warm water for 10 seconds. This will help with serving. Use a plastic knife to run around to loosen and invert onto plate. Using a spoon, place boba around the flan and on top and drizzle with extra brown sugar syrup.

Note: If no brown sugar syrup, you can substitute this with 1 cup of sugar and ¼ cup water, and make a caramel through heating together, stirring on stove until golden. Keep an eye on this as you don’t want it to burn.