The Best Creme Caramel

last month at TNS, michelle's first thursday challenge was to stretch our culinary skills, so i followed the time-honored formula that french food = difficult. and....i failed. miserably. my sin was trusting the usually reliable book's guildelines for cooking times when making the caramel, rather than trusting my instincts when watching with growing alarm as the color sped past golden to amber to scorched in about half the time it was supposed to take. so, this month's first thursday challenge is to make something romantic, since valentine's day is this month. so, with pepe le pew as my muse, i followed the time-honored formula that french food = romantic. and yes, this one also is a caramel-featured dessert: creme caramel (or flan). it is, in fact, featured on the cover of the book, so it must be good, right? to make it even more romantic, i used heart-shaped cake pans. awww. ain't it purty? (sorry about the bad photo, worse than usual, but the soft focus makes it more romantic, right?) this is easy stuff to make, and really no different in terms of technique than any other flan i've ever made (except for the tip of placing a SilPat on the bottom of the water bath pan, which added nice stability). and it's good--quite good. the best? no, i don't think so. it's kinda sweet. my personal favorite is the even-easier-to-make kahlua flan recipe by emeril (it uses sweetened condensed milk). but perhaps that's kicking creme caramel up too many notches for the classic recipe. this one is good, and the book stated that some tasters preferred a less-sweet caramel, adding the option to make it with less sugar. i'd do that next time.