Low Carb, Sugar Free Flan de Queso (Cheese Flan)
Flan was one of those things I never liked as a child. I remember my grandmother and great aunts making it often, but it would always turn my stomach for some reason. I think it was the texture and the overall “look” of it. But with age, I’ve learned to like traditional flan, and have learned to LOVE Flan de queso!
Flan de queso is like flan and cheesecake got together and had a dessert baby. It has the flavor of traditional caramel flan, but with the texture of a creamy cheesecake. It is DIVINE!
I was watching a hilarious video about flan the other day when it hit me- flan (and flan de queso) can TOTALLY be made to be low carb and keto friendly! With a few tweaks to the batter, and making the caramel sauce out of a healthy sugar substitute, this modification might actually work!
And it did, my friends… it totally DID. 
Now I want to preface this by saying a couple of things:
First, this is my very first attempt at making any flan. Like ever.
Second, since zero calorie sweeteners aren’t sugar, the caramel sauce is *almost* right, but not quite. It was delicious, but hardened a bit (making the top of the flan queso a little rough/crater-like). I’m going to keep working on it, and I’ll post updates as the recipe improves. By the way, I used Sukrin Gold for the caramel sauce and you can get it here.
Third, the caramel sauce not being perfect doesn’t matter. This flan is DELICIOUS, just DELICIOUS. So delicious that there was NO way I was going to wait until it was perfect to post this recipe. Believe me when I say that you’ll want to put this on your to-do list ASAP. 
Here’s the recipe! (Don’t be intimidated by the steps! I’ve embedded some tips within the steps, so it looks a lot longer than it actually is. Plus, flan de queso is a very forgiving dessert- you really cannot mess it up, promise!)
- 5 large eggs at room temp
- 8oz full fat cream cheese at room temp.
- 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup Swerve or Truvia no-calorie granulated sweetner
- 1/2 cup Sukrin Gold no-calorie sweeter (or an additional 1/2 cup of Truvia + 1 tbsp. molasses)
- 2 tbsp. water
- 2 tsps. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Grease a 8 or 9in cake pan or round casserole dish with at least 2-3in sides, and then place that greased dish inside a larger pan (like a 13 x 9 lasagna pan) to prepare for baking the flan in a water bath.
- Heat 1/2 cup of Sukrin gold (or Truvia + molasses), 2 tbsp. water, and 1 tsp. vanilla extract in a small, heavy-duty saucepan over medium-low heat stirring constantly until sweetener is dissolved and caramel in color. Keep a close eye on the sweetener, as it can easily go from golden to burned in seconds!
- Immediately pour the melted sweetener into the greased round dish, being very careful to NOT touch (nor taste!) the melted sweetener- it's SERIOUSLY hot and will severely burn your skin and tongue!
- In a blender, blend the cream cheese, heavy cream, eggs, sea salt, 1/4 cup Swerve or Truvia, and remaining tsp. of vanilla until it becomes a smooth batter.
- Pour the batter into the cake pan over the caramel.
- Add hot water (from the tap is fine) into the larger pan, and around the cake pan, making sure to not get water in the flan batter. It should come up the sides about an inch deep. The cake pan will be sitting in a water bath.
- Bake for 1 hour and then remove from oven and let the flan cool in the water bath. Once it is cool to the touch, refrigerate for 3-4 hours, or overnight to prepare it to invert.
- When you are ready to serve the flan de queso, run a sharp knife around the edges of the flan to loosen. Place a larger serving plate over the flan, and then quickly flip upside-down to invert. If it doesn't immediately fall onto the plate, run the bottom of the pan with warm water from the tap to loosen.
- Slice and serve cold!