Chocolate Flan (instructions for oven and pressure cooker)

Hello baker friends! Today let’s make this delicious and creamy Chocolate Flan, also known as Brigadeirão in Brazil. Here in this post I include instructions for baking the flan in the oven, or cooking the flan in the pressure cooker.

Chocolate Flan

I am going to start by saying that you will be totally amazed at how EASY this recipe is.

Looking for an easy potluck dessert? Something everyone will enjoy? Looking to impress your guests, family, and friends? Then you are at the right place at the right time, because this recipe is going to win your heart!

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Check out that creamy slice!

chocolate flan slice

To make this easy Chocolate Flan, you only need 9 ingredients (8 if you don’t count the water needed to make the caramel). And prep time is about 20 minutes, with spare time to wash the dishes!

I am including instructions to bake this Chocolate Flan in the oven, and also to cook it in the pressure cooker. I recently got this fancy Crock-Pot Express that is a pressure cooker, as well as a slow cooker.

How long does it take to bake a flan in the oven?

  • Took me about 60 minutes to bake a large Chocolate flan in a 12-cup bundt pan in the oven, in a water bath.

How long does it take to cook a flan in the pressure cooker?

  • In the pressure cooker, took me 14 minutes to cook the flan in a 5-cup bundt pan.
chocolate flan and pressure cooker

To cook it in the pressure cooker, you will need a smaller pan that fits in your pressure cooker. I used a 5-cup bundt pan for my 6 quart pressure cooker to make a smaller flan.

The recipe below is for a large flan to be made in a 9, 10, or 12-cup bundt pan. If you wish to make this Chocolate Flan in a pressure cooker, you will need a smaller pan that will fit in your pressure cooker, and therefore, all you have to do is halve the ingredients. Very easy math!

Trust me, I made this 3 times in the past month, so I can tell you it works really well!

chocolate flan

Here is how to make this easy Chocolate Flan

Start by placing the sugar in a small saucepan.

how to make caramel for flan
  1. Melt sugar over medium heat, while constantly stirring to ensure even melting.
  2. Sugar is going to start getting darker, keep stirring until it all melts and gets a dark amber color.
  3. Remove from the heat, add water, and return to the heat. Be careful, as caramel will bubble up quite a bit when you add the water. Re-melt the sugar crystals that form once you add the water.
  4. Once all sugar crystals have melted, let sauce simmer for another minute. Then remove it to cool slightly.

Now, grease the bundt pan with shortening.

greasing bundt pan with shortening

Sprinkle sugar all over and shake the pan around to ensure it’s all coated in sugar.

bundt pan greased and sugared

Now proceed with making the flan batter. Blend all ingredients in the blender for 1-2 minutes, until well incorporated.

Pour caramel sauce on the bottom of the bundt pan.

pouring caramel sauce on bundt pan

Then, pour the flan right on top. Don’t worry if the caramel gets mixed in the flan batter, it will sink back to the bottom as the flan bakes.

pouring flan batter in bundt pan

Place the flan in the oven, over a water bath. Simply choose a large roasting pan, and fill it with water about 1-2 inches high, and place the bundt pan on top of the water.

Or you can cook the flan in the pressure cooker.

Either way, make sure to cover the flan with foil.

picture of sliced chocolate flan

I grew up eating flan in Brazil, and it was one of my favorite desserts! My grandma used to make flan in her bakery and it was one of her most popular desserts.

chocolate flan

If you like Flan, you should also check out my other very popular recipe for Flan Cake here on the blog. Also check out my Flan Cupcakes. You will love them!

flan cake sliced

While this is a very easy recipe to put together, don’t forget to make it ahead if you want to bring somewhere, or serve at a gathering, because the flan needs to rest in the fridge overnight before you remove it from the pan.

Tips on how to make Chocolate Flan

  • Be careful with adding the water when making the caramel part, because once you add the water, the caramel will splash everywhere, and it will be HOT!
  • Don’t worry if the caramel gets mixed in the Flan batter, because it will sink to the bottom once it bakes.
  • If you want to bake this recipe in a smaller 5 or 6-cup pan, simply halve the recipe.
  • Make sure to let the flan chill in the fridge overnight before taking it out of the pan.
chocolate flan

Another very important tip is about taking the flan out of the pan on the next day. Since the flan was in the fridge overnight, the caramel will have hardened up. To easily remove the flan from the pan, place the bundt pan in a large pan with warm water. The warm water will help loosen up the caramel from the sides of the pan.

Let the bundt pan sit in the warm water for about 20 minutes. Pour some more hot water in there if necessary.

Wiggle the pan around, if the flan seems loose, you are ready to flip it onto a plate.

You may also have to use a knife around the edges, if necessary, but be careful not to cut into the flan.

Check out this decadent bite!

creamy slice of flan

If you like this Chocolate Flan recipe, here are some other recipes you may like:

chocolate flan

I hope you liked today’s recipe, if you give this a go, shoutout to me on instagram! I would love to see it!

chocolate flan

Thank you for reading my blog! Have a lovely day!

Chocolate Flan

Chocolate Flan

Camila Hurst
This is a Brazilian traditional Chocolate Flan, or Brigadeirao as we call it in Brazil. Creamy, chocolatey, irresistible!
5 from 5 votes
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Course Dessert
Cuisine brazilian
Servings 10 servings
Calories 300 kcal

Ingredients
  

Caramel Sauce
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup water
Chocolate Flan*
  • 2- 14 oz can of condensed milk
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
 

Caramel Sauce
  • Place sugar in a small saucepan. Start melting sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly to heat sugar evenly.
  • Once sugar has melted completely and has a copper color, remove pan from the heat.
  • Add water carefully, because the sugar will bubble up.
  • Return mixture to the heat, keep stirring and re-melt the sugar crystals that formed.
  • Once all sugar is melted again, keep stirring for another minute while simmering.
  • Remove from the heat.
  • Let it cool down slightly.
Chocolate Flan
  • You can use a 9, 10 or 12-cup bundt pan to bake the flan using the measurements above. To make it in the pressure cooker, you can use a 5 or 6-cup bundt pan for a 6 quart pressure cooker, and make sure to halve the amount of ingredients, easy peasy math!
  • Coat a bundt pan with shortening. Sprinkle the pan with sugar. Make sure it’s all coated with shortening and sprinkled with sugar evenly.
  • Set aside.
  • Place all ingredients for the flan in a blender.
  • Blend until smooth for about 1-2 minutes.
To assemble
  • Pour caramel sauce on the bottom of the bundt pan.
  • Pour chocolate flan batter on top.
  • Cover with foil
To bake in the oven
  • Pre-heat oven to 350F. Place bundt pan in a larger pan that has about 2 inches of water in, to create a water bath.
  • Bake in the oven for 40-90 minutes. It will depend on the size of the flan.
  • Flan will be ready once the top is slightly jiggly, but firm. Give the pan a little shake and if the top jiggles gently, but you can tell that the flan is firm, it means it’s ready.
To cook in the Pressure Cooker
  • I used a 6-quart pressure cooker to cook this flan in a 5-cup bundt pan, and I halved the ingredients amounts listed above.
  • It took only 14 minutes to cook the flan in the pressure cooker.
To serve
  • Regardless of the method chosen to cook the flan, cool it down, and place it in the fridge overnight before removing from the pan.
  • The next day, remove from the fridge, place the bundt pan in a larger pan with some warm water. Let it sit for about 20 minutes, replacing the warm water if necessary. This is necessary to loosen the caramel from the bottom, since it will be cold and hard because it was in the fridge.
  • Wiggle the bundt pan around and if the flan is loose in there, you can flip it onto a plate.
  • Otherwise, perhaps you can use a knife to help the edges come off the sides.
Storage
  • Store Flan in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.
Keyword flan

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36 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Oooooh, this has my name all over it! I can’t wait to give it a try! Love anything chocolatey and creamy. And adding caramel. Drooling. I appreciate the detailed instruction,too! Thanks!

  2. 5 stars
    Camila, this was delicious! But didn’t turn out half a story pretty as yours 🙁 Question, what size bunny pan did you use? And what brand or type of unsweetened cocoa powder did you use? I used Trader Joe’s and it didn’t give me that dark outer layer yours has and my binder pan was 12 cup.

    1. Hey Jennifer, I used a 9 cup bundt pan when I made it in the oven, and a 5-cup bundt pan when I made it in the pressure cooker, but I halved the recipe. Was the flan too short? Maybe it would be good to make 1 1/2 recipe for the 12 cup bundt pan if you would like for your flan to be taller, but there might be leftover batter, I haven’t experimented with those measurements yet.
      And I used Gihardelli chocolate powder!
      Did you make the caramel for the pan too?
      Thank you for your comment and rating! I hope next time it turns out better.
      Have a great day! Let me know if I can help with anything else.

  3. Hi, this looks amazing! Quick question.. did you coat the pan with powdered or granulated sugar? Thank you!

  4. Thanks for sharing the recipe. When using your electric pressure cooker for 14 minutes, do you do a quick release or let it set for a while?

  5. I endeavored to make this flan this morning. It’s in the fridge now, but is it supposed to look wet or runny around the edges? If it doesn’t come out, I will try again. I’m learning to try new things and this was a very new thing for me!
    I’ll show snap a pic when it comes out of fridge. 🤞😬

  6. Hi!
    Mine doesn’t look as pretty as yours, but it came right out of the mold, and you were absolutely right, it was the caramel sauce. I have to say my first try at flan, much less a chocolate one is a success in my kitchen!
    Thank you much for a wonderful recipe!

  7. This looks amazing. I’m wondering if spring form pan can be used instead of a bunt pan in the Instant Pot?

    1. No, please don’t use a springform pan. It needs to be a solid pan, with a solid bottom. If you use a springform pan, the caramel and the flan will leak out, it will be a total mess!

  8. Hello, the flan looks so delicious! I am looking forward to making this but when you say shortening are you referring to butter, oil or lard? Hopefully you’ll see this before this weekend so I can bake and share with my neighbors. Only if it comes out as beautiful as yours did lol.

    1. Hi there I used vegetable shortening, but you can definitely use butter! Lard is going to have too strong of a taste, so I don’t recommend using that. If you can find vegetable shortening such as Crisco, you can use that, if not, go for butter and it will work great.

      1. Thank you so much for the quick response I greatly appreciate it. If comes out as
        beautiful as yours how can I share a picture of it so you can see?

    1. usually I remember to boil the water first, but sometimes I forget. It’s better to heat the water first before adding it to the water bath.

  9. Hi Camila,
    I don’t have a Bundt pan; will it work in a regular cake pan? It looks delicious!

  10. Hi have just made your fudge cake, cooked for 50min on 177c the top is cooked but I can see liquid around the pan, will it set when cooled or should I put it back in oven for ??? Min thanks Sandra

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