Flan de Lucuma from Chile

What is it?

Lucuma is a fruit coming from a tree of the same name, originated in the Andes. It is cultivated because the fruit is used in different kind of desserts and ice creams. The Chilean variety of Lucuma comes from a tree with a very fine wood, for that reason it has to be protected in order to grow those trees to get the fruits.

Recipe

Ingredients:
3 lucumas
4 egg whites
11/4 cup of sugar
4 egg yolks
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:
Boil the lucumas and once done, mash them, being careful of taking out the seeds.
In a saucepan, put 1 cup of sugar and ½ cup water, let it boil until it reaches the hard-ball stage. Put the egg whites in a large bowl and beat them thoroughly until they get stiff and then slowly pour in the syrup while beating constantly the egg whites. Thus you make a cooked meringue. Fold in the mashed lucuma and put it all in a baking dish and to the oven for 20 minutes on middle heat oven. Once cool, unmold it into a serving dish

Prepare a vanilla cream, with the 4 well beaten egg yolks, add the ¼ cup of sugar and add the cup of milk previously boiled and very hot, stirring it slowly meanwhile. Take this to the fire again and let it boil once more until it thickens. Then let it cool, and once very cold, serve it with the baked part of the dessert.
Ideal to be served with a cold white Chilean wine!
You can try this same recipe with peaches if you can’t have lucumas!