"What's for Dinner Honey?"

Every Friday Local Betty features a new recipe in "What's for Dinner Honey?"  And Signe, our Farmers Market foodie tracks down another tasty treat from someone in town- a dish that is simple, delicious, and easy to share with friends and family.  We get inspired and we get to meet someone new.  We love it.

We've been posting Thanksgiving memories and Thanksgiving recipes.  Did you read Mark's post about his first Thanksgiving turkey?  Or Robin's recipe for a sweet/salty Thanksgiving?  How about Kevin's?  See if you can keep from smiling, we can't.  And we can't wait to share them all with you.

Today's holiday dish?

Pumpkin Flan- from the Duchess

Flan, not something you find on every menu.  Too Bad.  Flan is a most underrated dessert.  And besides, there's ginger whipped cream and caramel sauce to go with it- you really can't go wrong.

5 eggs
2/3 C sugar
1 1/4 t pumpkin pie spice [although Jan has never bought that in her life. she just uses ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves and cinnamon]
1/2 t salt
1 C light cream
1 1/2 canned pumpkin
1 C whipping cream
pecan halves

Beat eggs, sugar, and spices until blended. Scald cream, take it off the heat. Blend a small amount of cream into egg mixture, stirring all the while so you don't cook the egg, then stir the remaining egg mixture into the cream. Stir in the pumpkin and blend to smooth.

Pour into an 8" flan pan [you have one of those, right?] or a shallow cake pan. Place that pan in another pan and fill it with a 1/2" of boiling water [technically this is called a bain marie] Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the center is almost set but soft. It will set as it cools. Remove from water, and cool on a rack. Chill several hours or overnight.

To unmold, run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan, put the pan back in hot water for 5 minutes, and invert on a plate.

Toast pecan halves in a 350 oven a few minutes. Place them around the edge of the flan. Serve a slice of flan with a dollop [such a Duchess word] of ginger whipped cream topped with a toasted pecan and drizzled [liberally] with caramel crystal sauce.

Ginger Whipped Cream

1 1/2 C heavy whipping cream well chilled
3 T confectioners sugar
1/2 t ground ginger
1/4 C finely chopped crystallized ginger

Whip the cream until soft peaks form, fold in powedered ginger and sugar until blended, whip again until soft peaks form.  Fold in chopped crystallized ginger.  Chill.

Caramel Crystal Sauce

A warning with this- you are working with smoking hot sugar, so be very careful.

1 1/2 C sugar
1 C boiling water
2 T butter
2 T light corn syrup
Heat sugar until it forms a golden brown syrup- be careful not to burn it. Remove from heat and slowly, and very carefully, add the hot water. Return to the heat and stir in butter and corn syrup. Cook, stirring constantly until smooth and syrupy [which is a strange looking word].

The sauce will thicken as it cools. Store at room termperature in a covered jar. It makes 1 1/2 cups [but you'll find reasons to eat it by itself. with a spoon. in the middle of the night. So make more].

Just see if you don't add this one to your favorite desserts, and run right out and get your flan-loving self a special flan pan.