1. Make the caramel on the stove: Dissolve 1 cup of sugar in water and cook until browned and almost burnt. Take off the stove and add a teaspoon of cinnamon and stir into the super-hot caramel.
2. Pour the caramel into the bottom of four soufflé dishes. (There’s usually enough left over for two mini-soufflé dishes as well. The minis are fun to have for dieting spouses.)
3. Using a whisk, beat the eggs and egg yolks with half a cup of sugar—you can use relatively little sugar with the egg yolks, since the coconut milk is naturally sweet. But not for too long—just until it is a beautiful lemony yellow.
4. Heat the coconut milk, whole milk and heavy cream in a pot. Stir in the husked cardamom pods and the coconut. Make the mixture hot and just steaming-smoking but not truly boiling.
5. Pour the hot milks into the egg mixture, beating all the while with the whisk to keep the eggs from cooking.
6. Pour the egg and milk mixture, with the coconut and cardamom still in it, into the soufflé cups with the cinnamon caramel hardened on the bottom. (If the mixture’s super-frothy, you can strain it through a sieve, which will leave the cardamom and coconut behind; in that case, mix them back in cup by cup. I never find this step—straining—makes much difference, but some like to do it.)
7. Put the soufflé cups into a big baking dish with boiling water poured right up so that it comes to about a third of the way up each cup. Bake for approximately 30 minutes at 350°, or until set.
8. Refrigerate. Unmold by running a sharp knife around the edge of each crème caramel and inverting onto a pretty plate. Scoop out the residual caramel—there’s always some—with the knife or spoon onto the flan. Serve with pleasure.

— Recipe by Adam Gopnik