Thai Tea Milk Pudding with a Salted Cheese Cap | Two textures, one cup

A chilled Thai tea pudding with a salted cheese cap, spooned straight from the cup.

It reads like two desserts stacked in one glass. Underneath is a soft tea jelly, deep with Thai tea and just sweet enough. Over it sits a thick, salted cream cheese cap. The first spoon pulls both together, salty cream down through sweet tea, with a little crunch of butter crisp on top.

Neither layer is loud. That is the point. The tea holds the flavour and the cap sharpens it.

Why the sugar matters

The base is milk simmered slowly with Thai tea leaves until the brew turns dark and fragrant. Sweeten it with the wrong sugar and the tea flattens. This is where Ship Brand Raw Cane Sugar earns its place.

Raw Cane Sugar is natural, unrefined cane sugar with a soft golden sweetness. It rounds out the Thai tea without masking it, and it balances the salted cheese cap so neither the sweet nor the salt runs away from the other. Shop Raw Cane Sugar.

You taste the leaf first, then the sweetness, then the salt. The sugar does its work quietly and steps back.

Recipe

Makes several small cups. Chill time about 3 hours.

Tea jelly base

• Milk 350g
• Ship Brand Raw Cane Sugar 35g
• Thai tea leaves 15g
• Whipping cream 180g, added off the heat
• Gelatin, about 10g, soaked soft first

Salted cheese cap

• Cream cheese, about 30g
• Whipping cream, about 90g
• Ship Brand Raw Cane Sugar 10g
• Sea salt 0.5g

Topping

• Butter crisp (feuilletine)

Steps

1. Soak the gelatin in cold water until soft.
2. Gently simmer the milk with the Raw Cane Sugar and Thai tea leaves until the tea is deep and fragrant.
3. Off the heat, stir in the whipping cream and the softened gelatin so it melts through without breaking the tea aroma.
4. Strain out the tea leaves. The base should be silky and smooth.
5. Divide into cups, let cool, then chill for about 3 hours until set.
6. For the cap, whip the cream cheese, whipping cream, Raw Cane Sugar, and sea salt to a smooth, pipeable cream.
7. Pipe a thick cap onto each set pudding and finish with butter crisp.

Serve cold, straight from the fridge, in the cup you set it in.

One last note

A salted cheese cap can go too far. Keep the salt at a pinch and let the tea lead, and the two layers settle into each other rather than fighting. Cold is not optional here. Warm, the jelly loosens and the cap slides. Give it the full chill and it holds its shape to the last spoon.

Ship Brand (帆船牌) is the retail line of Yuen Tung Sugar Factory Industrial Company Limited. Sugar refined in Hong Kong since 1987. Shop the collection.