500 Followers Celebration: Guest Blogger (And My Dear Bloggy Friend) Bella!

 Its another wonderful day of celebration! And I am beyond thrilled with all the wonderful people who have sponsored giveaways and come to guest post!
Today I have a special friend guest posting Bella, of Bella Before & After! I LOVE this girl as if she were my sister or real life BFF! I know one day we will meet and eat great food and have wonderful conversation! :) She has been such a help to me in the bloggy world and I have loved being there for her. She is SUCH an inspiration to me and she will be to YOU too. So be sure to leave lots of love on her post here as well as over on her blog and dont forget to check out her facebook as well! :)

Alright... enough of me.. here is Bella!

Hello Agape Love Readers. I'm Bella, and boy am I happy to be over here at my sweet pal Maria's sharing a really yummy recipe for CREMA DE ZAHAR ARS. It is the Romanian version of FLAN. If you've made this before, you will know it is super simple, and although there are many versions, there are really only a few basic ingredients in all the recipes. 

There will always be sugar, milk, and eggs. 

Before I share the recipe with you, I'd like to let you all know that in addition to writing  at my main blog BELLA BEFORE AND AFTER, I also started a new cake blog, where I share all the wonderful cakes, and pasties I make along with my awesome Mom, Betty! Our blog is really new, and we could use some great bloggy friends, so I sure hope you stop by to say hello to us at:

EURO STYLE CAKES

While you are there checking our all the yummies, please check out our new weekly linky party. This is a place where you can show off your awesome parties, decorations, food, and of course CAKE. I hope you like what you see, and follow along, we'd sure love to have you. 

PARTY PLANNING TUESDAYS

Crema de Zahar Ars Recipe

This is how we make it. We used an 18inch cake pan to make this HUGE dessert. My mom made it for my husband for his birthday, he loves it, and it was a nice change to cake.

* 10 eggs

* 1 1/2 cups sugar

* 6 cups milk (whole or 2%)

* 1 tsp vanilla extract 

** Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Take the 1/2 cup of sugar, and slowly melt it in a pan. You want to do on rather slow heat, because you do not want the sugar to burn, only caramelize. Then if you will be cooking in the same pan, swirl the caramel to coat the sides of the pan. If you will be cooking in another pan, like we did, then transfer the caramel to that pan, and swirl it to cover all sides of the pan. The caramel will harden, and will again soften when baking in the oven.

2. With a mixer, beat the eggs whole until frothy, and slowly add the vanilla, sugar, and finally the milk slowly, until you get a perfectly fluffy, creamy custard, and pour into your baking dish. 

3. Have a larger pan, filled half way with water, and put your baking dish in this pan for a bath. Put both pans in the oven, and cook about 35 minutes (or less for smaller portions) until the top turns a lovely golden bubbly brown. Also the custard will feel set when you shake the pan. You will definitely know when it is done. 

4. You can now let this cool completely, and turn the entire dish over onto your serving platter, or if you can't wait for all that, just let it cool enough, so you can eat it right out of the pan, lol. 

This my friends, is incredibly delicious, and so very easy to make. You can easily use less sugar, and it will still be incredibly tasty. Remember the caramel will be super sweet, so your custard can be less sweet if you'd like. We usually never mess with making this in individual portions, and always make it in the hugest pans possible. However if you want it to look super pretty, making this in little cupcake pans, or other small bunt cake pans will make this look very nice.

Now in case you were wondering what makes this different than most recipes for FLAN, it's that we use simple regular milk, instead of evaporated, and condensed milk. There is a difference in taste, and I happen to love our recipe much better. Call me partial if you will, but that's just the way we've always eaten it. I remember my mom making this growing up, and her putting the pan outside to cool on the fence. We would all await the deliciousness that would follow for dessert. Oh the joys of having such yumminess available your whole life. 

Thanks so much Maria for having me over today. I'm so happy to be here helping you celebrate 500 followers, WOW. I am so happy to be your friend girl. Keep it up mama!!!

What do you think? Do you like it?

This blog is new so we'd really appreciate your support.

If you enjoy what you see so far, please consider following this blog, and liking us on facebook.

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Visit me at: Bellabeforeandafter.blogspot.com
Join the discussion on: Facebook.com/bellabeforeandafter
Have some cake at: Eurostylecakes.blogspot.com

Thank you SO much Bella for this recipe! I have never tried flan before.. but I think I am going to have to try your recipe out and try it! :) Oh how I wish we were neighbors, I would make you cook and bake for me! hehe ;) I wish I have your cooking skills! :)

Much Love & Hugs,