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Making Desert with Junko
Delicious Home-Made Pudding

- Japanese Recipe - 		Preparation
Ingredients
Reference
Q&A
A word from Junko
Reader Comment
[ last update : 2000.12.02 ]
Note: all temperatures
given in Celcius
Preparation
Preparing the Caramel

STEP 1 Prepare a piece of tin foil and coat with salad oil.
STEP 2 Pour the sugar and some water into a small pot. The water will evaporate anyway, so the amount is not so important.
STEP 3
  3.1 Simmer
3.2 Small bubbles
3.3 Larger bubbles, a sign that the color will soon change.
3.4 The bubbles get smaller and the mixture turns yellow
3.5 A rust-brown color
3.6 Done when the color turns dark and it starts smoking.

STEP 4 Place the caramel on the tin foil in small amounts. It will harden right away.

STEP 5 Let it dry. Once dry it should come off the foil easily, so simply place in the cups before pouring in the custard.

You can also make more than you need and freeze for use later on.

Preparing the Custard
(Ignore the green text if you do not plan on using fresh cream)

STEP 1
Take the eggs, milk, and fresh cream out of the refrigerator and have them ready.
(This is because pouring hot milk over eggs just taken out of the refrigerator will make the eggs solidify.)
STEP 2
Mix the vanilla sugar into the milk.

(The vanilla sugar gives the milk a delicious vanilla aroma.)
STEP 3
Warm the milk. (Do not let it boil)
(Do not put the fresh cream in yet.)

IMPORTANT!!
The milk is best heated to around 60 degrees for the sugar to melt. (Up to 80 degrees is ok.) Do not let it boil over! If that happens, the milk will lose its flavor.
STEP 4
Break the eggs into a bowl, and beat with a beater making sure not to let them froth. Bubbles in the mixed eggs will prevent the mixture from being smooth.
Once you have beaten the eggs, mix in the granulated sugar (and honey if you prefer.)
Factoid
Adding the egg whites gives the pudding a firmer body, while crème brulee is more collapsed because only the yolk and fresh cream are used. Pudding is normally made with one egg per 100cc of milk. Adding yolk afterward will make the pudding richer, so add according to your preference.
STEP 5
Mix the warmed milk into the egg and sugar mixture from Step 4, and add the vanilla essence.

Taste the mixture at this point. A little rum or brandy can add some pizzazz to liven it up a bit.
Factoid
Normally, eggs heated alone solidify at around 60 degrees, which means that adding milk hotter than this will produce the same hardening effect. Adding a bit of sugar to the milk at this point will prevent the egg mixture from solidifying by raising the temperature at which the eggs solidify.

STEP 6
Strain the mixture. Remove any solidified portions that may have formed on the surface.

(These solidified portions alter the taste if left in.)
If you are using fresh cream, strain it before mixing it in. (Cream is even more delicate than milk, so warming it with the milk will make the milk fat separate and ruin the taste.)
Factoid
Egg whites may sometimes solidify making them difficult to strain, but do not worry -this is just a sign that the eggs are fresh. In fact, eggs which are old are liable to be smoother and melt more easily.

STEP 7
Check the temperature of the mixture. When it feels about body temperature, pour it into the mold. If it is not warm enough, warm it up in a bowl placed in warm water (around 40 to 50 degrees).

If you are using fresh cream, the temperature may drop slightly due to the added cream, so warm it before placing it in the oven.
STEP 8
Pour into the mold. Remove any solidified portions on the surface.

STEP 9
Fill the tray on the baking sheet in the oven with hot water and cover the cups with lids. (Move slightly.)

Leave in the oven at 150 degrees for 37 minutes. If it does not come out well, try again at between 150 and 160 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.
IMPORTANT!!
Baking the pudding mixture with a lid over it will prevent it from drying out. This is especially true of gas ovens, as they blow a stream of hot air which will dry out the surface of the pudding if you do not put a lid on it. The dry surface will also have the effect of blocking the heat from reaching the inside of the pudding.
IMPORTANT!!
Filling with lukewarm water attenuates the effect of the heat. Pudding only hardens because of the egg in it, so you should be especially careful.
STEP 10
Take the cups out of the oven. Shake the pudding a bit. If it does not seem hard enough yet, put back in the oven for 2 to 3 minutes. If it is only a bit liquidy, then the left over heat from the oven will be enough to harden it.
STEP 11
Let cool, place in the refrigerator, and you are done!

Other Possibilities

Add other flavorings to the milk in Step 1 to make coconut pudding, tea pudding, or anything else your fancy desires. Solid foods like mango or sweet potato should be mixed into the milk using a blender. Your imagination is the limit!

Ingredients

For standard pudding
Milk 500 ml ¥114 295 kcal
Yolks 2 ¥137 560 kcal
Eggs 5
Granulated sugar
(for the custard)		 90 g ¥28 348 kcal
Granulated sugar
(for the caramel)		 50 g
Total ¥280 1397 kcal
Per serving ¥28 140 kcal

pudding with fresh cream and honey
Milk 500 ml ¥114 295 kcal
Fresh cream 100 ml ¥149 443 kcal
Yolks 4 ¥119 480 kcal
Eggs 2
Honey 20 g ¥40 59 kcal
Granulated sugar
(for the custard)		 70 g ¥24 271 kcal
Granulated sugar
(for the caramel)		 50 g
Total ¥445 1741 kcal
Per serving ¥45 174 kcal

Supplement
Sweetness
First, we should talk a little bit about the difference between granulated sugar and white superior soft sugar.
Granulated sugar has a refined, light flavor, while white superior soft sugar brings out a thicker, richer sweetness. When you need a richer flavor for butter cakes or sponge cakes, white superior soft sugar is your man. However, granulated sugar is what you need to get that delicate, refined taste for puddings or mousses. The honey used in this recipe is for adding flavor by bringing out a unique aroma and flavor, changing the taste a bit.

Fresh cream
Adding fresh cream gives the pudding a thicker flavor - maybe too thick for some palates. It is a question of preference, but it seems that this sticky richness is in fashion lately.

Eggs
The most basic ingredients in pudding are milk, eggs, and sugar. Of these basics, if you want to bring out a richer flavor, add more eggs.
Normally when you make pudding you use one egg for every 100 ml of milk, which would make five eggs for 500 ml of milk. However, for this recipe I have added two eggs to bring out a bit more richness.

Reference

Pudding Cup
You can get a package of 10 pudding cups for around ¥160 (100cc cups).
This is just the right size.

Calories by Ingredient
Eggs 1 80 kcal
Fresh cream 100 ml 443 kcal
Honey 100 g 294 kcal
Granulated sugar 100 g 387 kcal
Milk 100 g 59 kcal
Source: Color Graph Food Ingredients Chart, Jikkyo Publishing
Products used for this recipe
Milk Low-temperature sterilized milk 1000ml ¥228
Manufacturer: Japan Milk Net Co., Ltd. Kobe Factory
Fresh cream Meiji's Tokachi
(Meiji Tokachi Fresh 100)		 200ml ¥298
Manufacturer: MEIJI Milk Products Co., Ltd.
Eggs Inaka no Tamago 10 ¥198
Distributor: Izumiya, Designated farm: Izumo Farm
Honey Acacia (the type of bee) 600g ¥1200
Azuma Apiary
Sugar Granulated Sugar 1kg ¥198
Daito
All prices without tax. The amount of vanilla sugar used was very small, so I did not calculate it. By the way it goes for ¥130 a pod. I put in one whole pod of vanilla for every 15 to 20g of sugar used, and even still the total amount of vanilla in the pudding does not even come to 1g.

Q & A

Question: What is the most important thing to remember?
The oven temperature and the baking time. A mere five-minute difference can ruin the pudding. The oven temperature should be set to between 150 and 160 degrees. Baking time should be around 35 minutes. The whole process is very simple, with only three steps: mixing, straining, and then braising. One important point is to make sure not too much air gets in the mixture when mixing.

Question: How long does it take to make?
15 minutes (preparation) + 35 minutes (oven-time)

Question: What is the secret behind the ingredients?
The sugar is surprisingly important The milk and the eggs do not play such an important role in defining the flavor, but change the sugar, and you will change the sweetness completely. I have not noticed any real difference in flavor using the cheap ¥90 eggs or the expensive organic eggs.

Question: How are the pores created?
When eggs are heated they solidify, although at a temperature lower (70 - 80 degrees) than the boiling point for water (100). For this reason, when you heat them in the oven, the water begins to boil (evaporate) after the egg part has solidified. In other words, the water evaporates within an already solidified structure, leaving little holes behind. These are the pores. (And once they are formed, there is no way to get rid of them.)

Question: How can I avoid such pores?
Try warming the mixture before putting it into the oven. Another point to watch out for is that many recipes specify pouring hot water onto the tray in the oven. This is misleading. The water should be hot, but not too hot, as this will create pores. So use lukewarm water.

Question: Why do you add honey?
For flavor.

Question: What about the fresh cream?
This is to give it a richer, creamier texture. 100 ml of fresh cream contains 443 kcal, so this will raise the calorie content of each cup of pudding to 44.3 kcal - rather high.

Question: Is it ok to take the finished pudding out of the oven and put it right into the refrigerator?
It will not affect the pudding, but it is not so good for your refrigerator.

A word from Chef Junko
I have made all sorts of puddings, but the most delicious is the standard custard putting. Pumpkin pudding is good, too, but the flavor depends too much on the pumpkin used. The most important point to keep in mind when making pudding is the oven temperature.This is what it all comes down to. The rest is just mixing.
Let me know any suggestions or comments at junko@iina.com.

Reader Comment

Mogumogumogu Tan-san
Placing a towel underneath when braising the pudding prevents pores from forming.
recipe by Junko Nishimura
produced by iina pudding world