Ginger Milk Pudding

Ginger milk pudding is a traditional Chinese dessert often seen in Cantonese cuisine and dim sum. It's not too sweet, warm, and soft and jiggly like silken tofu, and it requires only 3 simple ingredients (yes only 3!)— just some milk, sugar, and ginger juice. This is such an easy dessert to make and perfect for to enjoy after some dim sum classics like siu mai and turnip cake!

But besides serving as a dim sum dessert, we often enjoy ginger milk pudding in cooler weathers because the spice from the ginger really warms up body up from the inside. Plus, both warm milk and ginger are said to be good the stomach in Chinese medicine.

Jump to:

• Ingredients needed
• How to make ginger milk pudding
• Important things to note
• Storage and reheating
• FAQs
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Feedback

Ingredients needed

Please scroll down to the recipe card for the ingredient quantities!

• Milk - We recommend whole milk for best flavor and texture. Although skim milk is fine too, it'll likely taste too watery. Traditionally, buffalo milk is used, likely due to their higher protein percentage. So if buffalo milk is accessible to you, feel free to try it out!
• Sugar - plain, granulated sugar is perfect
• Ginger - This is the most important ingredient for the magic in this recipe to work. It's best to use mature/old ginger, aka those big roots of ginger, because they yield more juice, gives more flavor, and contains the most protease zingibain, which is the enzyme that will turn your liquid milk to a jiggly, soft pudding. Try to pick ginger roots heavy for their size because you can usually get more juice out of those.

How to make ginger milk pudding

Please scroll down to the recipe card for the full recipe and instructions!

1. Prepare the ginger juice. Peel then grate your ginger using whatever method you'd like. We like to use our microplane because the fine yields us the most juice. Then pass the pulp and juice through a fine mesh sieve or a clean towel. Squeeze to to get maximum yield. Place one full tablespoon of fresh ginger juice into each bowl/per serving. Set aside.

Note: As the juice sits, you'll likely see a pale, white sediment at the bottom of the bowl. That's ginger root starch. You can simply just stir it back in and use it as is.

2. Heat the milk. Add milk and sugar into a saucepan and place over medium heat. While heating, stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Heat the milk to 155-158°F (68-70°C) and remove from heat. This is the second most important thing in this recipe. Don't overheat the milk!

3. Combine. Pour the milk into the ginger juice about 5 inches (13cm) above the bowl. This is simply so that the milk and ginger juice are properly mixed. Cover the bowl with a flat plat and wait 5 minutes.

4. Enjoy! After 5 minutes the ginger milk pudding should have coagulated and firmed up to a similar texture as silken tofu. Enjoy it warm and as is or top it with some regular honey or osmanthus honey (ration and instructions in recipe card). This the traditional preference. If you'd rather, you can refrigerate the pudding and enjoy it chilled as well.

Important things to note

• The freshness of ginger juice is quite crucial to the success of making ginger milk pudding because the protease enzyme will become less effective as it sits. So it's best to grate and juice your ginger when you need it and best within the day.
• Temperature - It is VERY important that the milk is around 158°F (70°C) when you add it to your ginger juice because the protease enzyme is the most effective at coagulating milk at 158°F (70°C). If it's too hot, the enzyme will deteriorate quickly and will not coagulate the milk properly.
• Take account of your bowl's temperature and how hot your kitchen is. For example if it's winter and your kitchen is super cold, you can heat the milk up an extra couple of degrees because by the time the milk hits the bowl, it'll be a couple degrees cooler. If your kitchen is hot, keep it at 158°F (70°C).
• Pour the milk at a decent height so that the ginger juice and milk mixes properly.

Storage and reheating

Ginger milk pudding is best enjoyed freshly made and, traditionally, while it's warm. This is so you can taste the warm, mild spiciness of the ginger. But if you happened to make extra, you can keep it refrigerated for up to 2 days.

If you'd like to enjoy your leftover milk pudding warm, prepare a hot water bath and let the bowl of pudding sit in the hot water until warmed up.

FAQs

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