Egg Pudding with Agar and without | Boba Tea Series

overview

Welcome back to our Boba Tea Series, where we try to make all our favorite boba tea toppings and fillings. Previously, we made our quick homemade boba, heavenly cheese cream foam and today, we’re talking about my go-to boba topping: egg pudding. If you’re getting weirded out on the idea of drinking egg pudding, trust me bruh, you’re missing out on life. Egg pudding is one of those textural phenomenons: creamy, rich, just a touch sweet, and yes soft and jiggly enough to consume through a straw.

We’re pretty lucky living in the Bay, we’ve got *hella* boba spots around. But you know us, we have to try to make it ourselves, just so we know if it’s worth the trouble or if we can make it even better. Like if you’d rather not consume gelatin, you may need to make it yourself! Or sometimes you just don’t want to fork over 5-8 bucks for a drink. Seriously, egg pudding is so good you can eat it by itself or put it in all kinds a’ tings. Use your imagination, but maybe not too much imagination…

So just how difficult is it to make this divine bu-ding (布丁 pudding)? Not that hard! We’ll share 2 different methods and which you choose will depend on a couple things. For our friends who want it like, now – and don’t want to bother with steaming or baking, we recommend the agar route. Using agar will also help your pudding hold better in your tea, but we did find it gives the pudding the slightest bit of a crunch texture, which you may or may not like. You can replace agar with gelatin but the substitution is NOT 1:1. We had to test this recipe quite a number of times to determine the ratio for ourselves, but it will also depend on your preference for the texture. And if you want a really silky delicate pudding then follow the steaming method!

Homemade Egg Pudding Recipe

Materials

2 Small bowls
Whisk
Small Saucepan
Fine sieve strainer
Thermometer (if using agar)
Steamer or large pot (if steaming)
Steamer rack and claw (if steaming)

Ingredients

1 C Whole milk, divided if using agar
2 Large Egg Yolks
2 TBS Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/8-1/4 tsp Agar powder

How to Make Egg Pudding with Agar Powder

Hydrate the agar: In a bowl, place agar and from a 1/2 C milk, add a small splash of milk to first create a paste. This ensures the agar will mix thoroughly without leaving lumps. Then add the remaining milk and mix well.
Heat up the other 1/2 C milk in a small saucepan. Bring the milk to a simmer over low heat.
While milk is heating up, in a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla.
Temper the egg mix: slowly pour the warmed milk into the egg yolk mixture while whisking the mixture. Set aside.
Using the same saucepan, you can heat up the agar milk mix to 194 F, whisking often. Once it reaches temp, take it off the heat and allow to cool down to 120F.
Once cooled, combine the egg milk and agar milk.
Strain mixture into a container. If this is your first time using agar, this is a good time to test the agar, you can pour a small spoonful of the final mixture into another bowl, it should set within a minute. If it doesn’t, you may need more agar or you may have not brought agar all the way up to temp. This would be the time to adjust your mix before it sets completely.
Cool and set the egg pudding, which should happen within an hour. Agar will set at room temp, but egg pudding should be kept in the fridge.

How to Make Steamed Egg Pudding

Heat 1 C milk to simmer over low heat.
While milk is heating up, in a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla.
Temper the egg mix: slowly pour the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture while whisking the mixture.
If you plan on removing the egg pudding whole to serve, lightly oil your steaming container. If you’re just putting it in a drink like us, you don’t have to.
Strain mixture into a steaming container. For the silkiest appearance, also remove any air bubbles and cover bowl with foil or plastic wrap to prevent condensation droplets pockmarking your pudding.
Steam over low heat for 8-11 minutes, depending on the size of your container(s) and desired texture.
Remove from the steamer. You can serve it warm or chilled. Store egg pudding in the fridge.

agar powder in bowl — Place agar in bowl

What Teas Pair Well with Egg Pudding?

A big thank you to our Boba Tea Series sponsor, Zenzu Tea for providing all the delicious teas. We enjoyed our egg pudding with their Golden Horse Eyebrow, a unique black tea that truly has notes of caramel and sweet potato, which goes so good with the creaminess of our egg pudding. Honestly though, egg pudding goes with anything! I’ve literally had it in every type of tea, so whatever tea is your jam, try it with egg pudding. What you would have with your egg pudding? Let us know in the comments!

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