This is actually quite an old recipe that I forgot to publish! I found the photos while I was looking for some other photos and decided to publish right away!

Pumpkin and gorgonzola flan was the dish that I baked for the first recipes evening. I had 5 guests – 4 cooks and 1 taster, and we had a cosy and delicious, also very fulfilling dinner. The flan was the starter and it got the approval from my guests for publishing. I don’t know why, but then I did not publish! I might have thought to bake it again because some of the photos are quite blurry. But still, you can see what is happening so no big problem there.

 

I found this recipe in “There is a newf in my soup!” blog.

 

Apart from being a starter, this dish can also be a side dish with a light salad and maybe bread. You can eat them directly from the ramekins, as we did, or you can invert them onto a plate. I didn’t even try to invert them so I don’t know how easy or beautiful it is like that.

 

You should leave them to cool for a few hours, maximum 6, before serving so plan your baking carefully if you are doing for a scheduled dinner event.

 

The flans have quite salty taste. If you are not a big fan of salt, you might skip adding extra salt in the recipe. Because gorgonzola is already quite a salty cheese and if it is enough salt for you, you should not add more. I have to admit that gorgonzola, to me, sounds a lot like garmonbozia – from Twin Peaks. Well, Twin Peaks movie has a very important place in my life – I watched it when I was 13 and I could not sleep alone for 6 months after that. I was really scared!!!

 

 

Anyway… Looking at the photos, I remember my previous apartment in Töölö, since I baked this dish more than a year ago in that apartment. I miss Töölö and I miss that apartment. I like my current apartment (especially my kitchen) and I quite like Kallio but if you are used to Töölö then it is a bit hard to get used to Kallio. Well, I have all the time in the world to get used to it!!

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Ingredients:

 

(makes 8 small size ramekins – if that’s too much, you can perfectly divide the portions in 2)
800 gr. canned pumpkin puree (you can find these in big K-markets or Behnford’s in the centre – 1 can is 400 gr. that’s why you see 2 cans of pumpkin)
6 eggs
4 egg yolks
1 cup / 2.4 dl heavy whipping cream (kuohukerma)
1/2 tsp / 2.5 ml salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
250 gr. gorgonzola, crumbled into small pieces
1 cup / 2.4 dl walnuts, chopped freely into small pieces
sour cream, smetana, cream fraiche, honey, syrup etc.. (optional)

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 175C.

 

2. Butter your ramekins, and on an oven dish (I used a pyrex, it should not be a shallow dish because you will fill with water in the end) put a baking paper. Put these aside.

 

 

3. In a mixing bowl, put pumpkin puree, egg yolks, eggs (sorry forgot to take the photo of that step) and heavy cream and beat them until smooth.

 

 

 

4. Add salt (if you want to) and black pepper and beat them a bit more.

 

 

5. Divide the mixture between ramekins.

 

6. Divide the crumbled gorgonzola equally between ramekins. Try to push some of the cheese very much inside the mixture while leaving the rest on the surface.

 

 

7. Add chopped walnuts.

 

8. Put the ramekins in the oven dish. Boil water and pour that inside the oven dish, up to half of ramekins.

 

 

9. Bake them for about 35-40 minutes – until a knife inserted in the centre of the flan comes out clean. As I said above, leave them to cool down, up to 6 hours, before you serve. You can add a dollop of sour cream or cream fraiche etc. or you can pour a bit of honey or syrup to add a bit sweetness. I had sour cream but in the end we did not want to put it. So yes, you can also eat the flans without adding anything else. Enjoy!