Three strikes and you're out? No, no no !

I tried making my flan recipe for my brother-in-law's family today. Ed and Betsy have been so kind to host us these last few days in Denver. We had a big family dinner on Sunday and seeing all of these nieces and nephews who grew up too much this last 10 years was lots of fun.

So back to the flan. I could make this stuff in my sleep, but was not prepared for the challenge of an induction stove top and unfamiliar pots to use. My tried and true step to caramelize the sugar--failed. The sugar & water mixture, like wet sand, just crystallized into a glop into the pan.

Ok, try number two, different pan, same glop.

Try number three, same pan different burner, same glop..total failure!

Now when presented with such a problem, there is only one thing to do....go to Google. Remember in the movie The Godfather when they said, go to the mattresses? Well, my solution in such a battle is Google. You can find anything there, except about my problem of how to caramelize sugar on an induction stove top.

Ok, plan 'B', forget this strange cooktop, I miss my gas stove and favorite pan, and try the microwave. While looking for info about the induction stove I did run across an article about doing this in the microwave.

The 4th time is the charm! All you need is a Pyrex 4 cup glass measuring cup. Pour 1 cup of sugar and enough water to make 'wet sand' our of the sugar, put it in the microwave on high for 5 minutes. Watch it the last minute, it will start to change color and make a nice amber syrup. My try actually needed 6 and 1/2 minutes to get the amber golden color I was looking for.

Now use a hot mitt and be very careful when taking it out of the microwave. This syrup will burn. Pour it into the metal loaf pan you want to use and coat the pan. Directions are on my post from July 17th, "Flan, the perfect dessert."

Now I have a flan cooking away in its hot water bath in the oven,  it will be ready to put in the fridge in about a half an hour.

I owe my sister-in-law Betsy a new measuring cup. The plastic one I used does not want to let go of the last residue of caramelized sugar in the bottom, small price to pay for success at last!