Double-skin stewed milk (双皮奶)

Double-skin stewed milk (双皮奶) is a traditional Cantonese desert. When I visited GuangZhou, China last May, I went to the original stewed milk shop, called 仁信. It is said that in the late Qing Dynasty, the founder lived in Shunde and raised cattle for a living. Since there was no refrigerator at that time, he tried to boil milk to keep it from spoil, and accidentally discovered milk skin and this tastily way to make desert. I visited on a hot day after walking around old town for hours; a cold bowl of stewed milk was a treat from heaven.

Since milk skin is caused by denaturation of proteins.  Whole milk should work better for this desert. Although I have tried this a few times, I still cannot consistently keep the milk skin intact. Well, I love it with or without the milk skin.

Ingredients:

Whole milk - 4 cup
Sugar - 2 TBSP
Egg - 2 

Make 6 small bowls.

Material cost: approx. $2.50

Equipment:

Steamer, measuring cup and spoon

Steps:

1. Pour milk into 6 little bowls. The one I use is about 2/3 cup milk per bowl. You can use any size. Place the bowls in steamer. (you can also cover the bowls with shrink-wrap to protect it from water droplet. I did not.)

2. Steam for 10 minutes, and take bowls from steamer to let it cool down. The milk skin should form.

3. In a small bowl, beat up eggs and sugar. (Some recipes call for egg white only, which should give it a more white and smooth look. I do not want to deal with left over egg yolk, so I put in the whole egg.)

4. When the milk is lukewarm, life a corner of the milk skin with fork, and pour milk out to a large mix bowl. (Keep some milk inside the little bowl so that the milk skin does not stick to the bowl).

5. Add the egg mixture to the milk bowl and stir it thoroughly. 

  6. Refill the little bowls with mixture from step 5. You can use fork or small spatula to life the milk skin while pouring to preserve the milk skin. I fail on this step most of the time. It does not affect the end product taste ;-). Steam on high heat for 10 minutes. Turn off the stove, and let it sit for another 5 minutes. Check the stewed milk. It should be jello like.

7. You can eat the desert warm, or chill in refrigerator and serve it cold. Yummy!