Ginger milk pudding or ginger milk curd is a very popular Chinese dessert made by ginger juice, milk and sugar. It is a magic dessert you will love after the first trying.
To make this pudding, we do not need any other curd agent like gelatin or agar-agar. With the help of the natural coagulant- ginger protease, milk can form into smooth curd quickly after combination. The pudding has a very smooth texture with a slight touch of ginger juice.
Cooks’ Note
After several failed attempts, I finally get the points and make the perfect ginger milk curd and serve them as a after meal dessert. It is the simplest and quick dessert in my mind now.
- Get juice from older ginger: older gingers are rich in ginger protease, which plays the most important role for the curding process. And make sure your ginger juice is freshly squeezed.
- Use whole milk with at least 3.5% fat: or adding some baking milk powder can help to improve the fat content.
- Right pouring temperature: the best mixing temperature is around 70 degree. But lower temperature creates better texture. So I use 65 degree C (150 degree F).
- For a better mixing, shake the ginger juice before pouring milk.
Ingredients:
- 400ml whole milk
- 1 tbsp. fresh ginger juice
- 2 tbsp. sugar to taste
- 1 tbsp. milk baking powder (optional)
Instructions:
Use a small spoon and peel the ginger skin off and then grate with the finest grater (or finely minced). Transfer to a very fine-mesh strainer and then press with spoon to squeeze the juice out. Place 2 teaspoons of fresh ginger juice in each two serving bowls.
Heat milk over the slowest fire and dissolve sugar and milk powder if you are using. Continue heating until around 90 degree C or just boiling. Move away from heat and wait for 1-2 minutes until the temperature drops around 65 to 70 degree C.
Slightly shake the serving bowls and then pour the milk quickly to the serving bowls. Recommend pouring from higher places so ginger juice can well mixed with milk.
Then cover and set aside for 5 minutes. They can be serve directly as a hot dessert or a cold dessert after chilled or cooled down.
If you love to make pudding for summer days, check Chinese mango pudding and coconut milk pudding too.
- 400 ml whole milk
- 1 tbsp. fresh ginger juice
- 2 tbsp. sugar to taste
- 1 tbsp. milk baking powder , optional
-
Use a small spoon and peel the ginger skin off and then grate with the finest grater (or finely minced). Transfer to a very fine-mesh strainer and then press with spoon to squeeze the juice out. Place 2 teaspoons of fresh ginger juice in each two serving bowls.
-
Heat milk over the slowest fire and dissolve sugar and milk powder if you are using. Continue heating until around 90 degree C or just boiling. Move away from heat and wait for 1-2 minutes until the temperature drops around 65 to 70 degree C.
-
Slightly shake the serving bowls and then pour the milk quickly to the serving bowls. Recommend pouring from higher places so ginger juice can well mixed with milk.
-
Then cover and set aside for 5 minutes. They can be serve directly as a hot dessert or a cold dessert after chilled or cooled down.
Happy cooking, if you make yummy dishes with Elaine’s recipe. You can tag #chinasichuanfood and send me a photo on Instagram. I love your brilliant works.
Hi Elaine,
this sounds quite fun. I have two questions. What do you consider to be “old” ginger? Just buy fresh one and let it sit for two weeks? Are those mint leaves you used for garnish?
Andreas,
We have baby ginger here in China, which is tender and usually used for pickles. Mint leaves are used just as a decoration.
Hi Elaine,
thank you for your clarification regarding the ginger. So “old” ginger is the “regular” one I get here.
I remember seeing something that looked like ginger but had a smoother skin and green sprouts coming out at the top once in a grocery store. I mistook it for galangal then, wondering why it was somewhat lighter in color.
Funny thing is, it was labeled literally “Flight-Ginger” and I didn’t know what to make of that at the time. I searched for it today an found out, that the “fresh” or “raw” ginger must imported via plane rather than by ship – which takes a couple of weeks – and hence the strange name 🙂
Hello Elaina
I really enjoy your website a lot and would love to try this new recipe. Howevery, I have one question. What is “milk baking powderd” and can it be substitued with regual baking powder?
Thank you for sharing all your great recipes.
Sonja,
If the milk contains enough fat, you can skip it. It is just milk powder mainly used for baking.
Upps, sorry for all my typos.*smiel*
If it needs fatty milk for success, then perhaps a posset using cream I stead of milk would work, too
I am also scuppered by “baking milk powder” which is unknown in the UK
I have never tried to use cream to make ginger milk pudding. In China, originally we use a local milk named as water milk (水牛奶). The best substitute of this water milk is whole milk but cream has a much higher fat content.
Baking milk powder is quite common in Chinese bakery. It is actually whole milk powder. You can skip this.
That comment got me stumped and intrigued also so I googled it to find nothing. Then went back and read her blog from the beginning and, it is just the way that she worded it. It is just powdered milk. Lol!
Hi, i love your postings. I wanted to ask if you’ve perfected Almond Pudding yet? If yes, please share…. also in US measures please.
水牛奶 should be translated as water buffalo milk instead of “water milk”. The same kind they used to make mozarella di buffa in Italy!
Thanks for the correctness. Yes, water buffalo milk is a better name.
I’ve tried it, with whole milk of 3.5% fat, but when I removed the lid after waiting 5 minutes, it was 100% liquid, and not pudding at all. Any idea what I did wrong?
This happens to me once too, Michiel. The most possible reason is the temperature of the milk. I have included several tips in the post. You need to make sure the milk temperature is around 65 degree C to 70 degree C. And slightly shake the ginger juice before pouring the milk.
Hi Elaine,
Love your site.
Tried the ginger milk pudding but it was not successful.
Just like Michael commented, it was 100% liquid, and not setting.
Don’t know what’s wrong.
The most possible reason is the temperature of your milk. If the temperature is well controlled, you need to stir the ginger and pour the milk from a higher place.
Hi guys, I can see some of you are struggling to reach the desired consistency and are left with a ginger milk liquid. Therefore, I thought I might just leave this tip to help those who might need it. This dessert is truly amazing and I have enjoyed this myself in China numerous times but as you can imagine Chinese milk is somewhat different to milk you may find in your own counties. Therefore, this tip might save a few people. This dessert is similar to a pannacota, so if you were to follow the plain vanilla pannacota recipe but substitute the vanilla for the ginger juice, you going to get a very similar result. But for those who want to use this recipe and set the liquid firm then I suggest adding gelatine and the result perhaps could be a better texture. However, if your skilled enough to pull off this recipe then please do as it is authentic to the Chinese dessert. Once again, an amazing dessert and please keep the recipes coming China Sichuan Food!! Be sure to like and share their recipes!
Hi Lze,
Thanks for much for your information. Adding gelatin is a smart idea. The most important step of this dessert is the “crushing” process when you pull the liquid into the bowl. It is not difficult but may need several times of practice. Happy cooking!
Success with this recipe! I used a digital food thermometer to make sure I had the correct temperature.
I love ginger milk pudding. I previously used another recipe which involves adding egg white and steaming the pudding for 10 min, and it always worked. But I am glad I gave this more adventurous recipe a go! Thank you.
Thanks Kay. That’s meaning a success for me too. I am quite upset when posting this because I tried twice to call the result a real ginger milk pudding. So glad to hear your good news.
I think some the pudding that are not setting up properly are confusing your temperature measurement. The recipe is written in Celsius, so convert the temo to Fahrenheit (it is converted in the step by step but not in the written recipe). Pour and combine at 150F.
Missa,
I have list the best temperature 150F in the previous cooks’ note section.
I can attest that the temperature of the milk made a huge difference. I made two bowls with the same pot of milk, one turned out liquid and the other one set. Difference was that after I poured the first bowl, I let it rest in the stove while I continued grating more ginger for the second bowl.
If you don’t have a thermometer like me, the milk beginning to curdle in the pot is a good indicator that it is the right the right temperature.
I tried grating and pressing the ginger juice but there were barely any. I resorted to pouring the milk over the finely minced ginger over the sift. Worked quite well! Thanks for the recipe!
I agree that temperature of the milk is the first key factor of a successful ginger milk pudding.