KO EN ES PT FR Chinese Dessert⏱ 50 minEdit history

Shuangpinai (Double-Skin Steamed Milk Pudding)

Name: Shuangpinai (Double-Skin Steamed Milk Pudding)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 500 ml whole milk; 2 egg whites; 30 g sugar; sweet cooked red beans

A milk dessert from Shunde in Guangdong. Boiled milk is poured into a bowl and cooled until a skin forms; the milk is drained out from under it, mixed with egg white, poured back beneath the skin and steamed. A second skin forms as it cools. A soft custard set by egg white.

Ingredients

2servings

whole milk · buffalo milk if you can get it500 ml
egg whites · about 70g2
sugar30 g
sweet cooked red beans · optional, to top

Steps

Heat the milk in a pan and turn off the heat as soon as it bubbles at the edges.
Divide it between two bowls and leave it undisturbed to cool. A wrinkled skin forms on top.
⏲ 20 min
Lift the edge of the skin a little with a chopstick and tip the bowl to pour the milk underneath into a jug. Leave the skin in the bowl.
Stir the sugar into the egg whites without making foam, then mix in the milk. Strain twice through a fine sieve.
Pour the mixture slowly back through the gap so it fills the space beneath the skin. The skin rises to the top.
Cover each bowl with film or a plate and steam over low heat. Take them out when the centre barely wobbles.
⏲ 12 min
Leave to cool; a second skin forms as it does. Serve warm or chilled, topped with red beans if you like.
⏲ 10 min

Variations

Red beans or lotus seeds on top. The usual way in Cantonese dessert shops.
Mango. Topped with cubes of fresh mango.
Ginger. A little ginger juice changes the scent.
Buffalo milk. Higher in fat, so smoother.

Tips

Turn the milk off just before it boils. It boils over in seconds.
Do not touch it while it cools. The skin tears.
Keep the skin in the bowl. Without it the dish loses its name.
Do not whisk the whites to a foam. Bubbles end up as holes in the surface.
Strain twice. It catches clumps of egg white.
Steam on low heat. On high the custard fills with holes.

More detail and the reasons why (2)

The milk skin is made twice. Korean Wikipedia says the first skin forms as the boiled milk cools and the second as the cooked custard cools. A milk skin is usually something to skim off. Here the first one is left at the bottom of the bowl and the milk is poured back beneath it so it floats up as a lid. The name means "double-skin milk".
Egg white is what sets it. Panna cotta sets with gelatin and douhua sets soy milk with a coagulant. Shuangpinai holds its milk with egg white protein setting in the heat (cooking eggs). The story goes that milk with a skin kept spilling on the way to customers, so egg white was added to set it. Gentle steam keeps the set smooth (steaming).