Japanese Custard Pudding (Purin/プリン)

Cuisine: Japanese • Prep and cooking time: 1 hour • 6 Servings • 166 calories per serving

Contemplating Sweets: Japanese Custard Pudding AKA Purin

This baked Japanese custard pudding, known as Purin in Japan, is creamy, delicious, and easy to make!

Contributed by: Amy Wang, Staff Writer
January 11, 2023

Ingredients

Caramel sauce

  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 3 Tablespoons water
  • 1 Tablespoon water to add at the end

Custard pudding

  • 3 large eggs
  • 500 ml whole milk
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven to 320 degrees F and prepare 6 ramekins. If you don’t have ramekins, you may use muffin pans, but you must pay close attention when baking.
  2. In a small pan over medium-high heat, add the sugar and 3 tbsp of water and quickly stir together. Stop stirring after combined, and allow the sugar water to come to a simmer. Cook the sugar until it is brown, and caramelized. Carefully add 1 tbsp of water into the caramel, to help loosen it up. Careful! It’s hot and may splatter a bit! Quickly pour caramel into the ramekins or into the muffin pans evenly.  
  3. In a large microwave-safe bowl, heat the milk until warm to the touch. Whisk in the sugar until combined. Whisk together the three eggs in a separate bowl. Add the whisked eggs to the milk/sugar, and whisk to combine. Add the vanilla and whisk to combine. Pour through a strainer, and divide the strained liquid among the 6 ramekins.
  4. Place the ramekins in a 9×13 cake pan (or  a pan with sides that are about as tall or taller than the ramekins). Boil water, and pour the hot water in the cake pan (don’t get any in the Purin!), about 1/2-3/4 of the way up the sides of the ramekins.
  5. Transfer to the oven and bake until the custard is soft but set (jelly like) and no longer too liquidy (40-50 mins). 
  6. Remove from the oven, and allow the Purin cups to cool completely. These are best served cold, so let them cool in the fridge before serving!
  7. To remove Purin, run a knife along the edge of the ramekins and flip onto a plate, so the caramel sauce is on top. Or eat it straight from the ramekin.

Tips:

  • I recommend you heat your ramekins/ muffin pans before pouring in the sugar, so the sugar doesn’t cool too quickly.
  • To check if the Purin formed correctly, lightly shake the ramekins/ muffin pan to see if it jiggles. If it does, then you did well!

Source: https://www.contemplatingsweets.com/japanese-custard-pudding-purin/