Fried Milk

Fried milk is a popular Cantonese dessert. The pudding-like milk filling is soft, creamy, and sweet, and coated by a golden and crispy panko crust.

Often served with sweetened condensed milk, deep fried milk is one of the must-orders when Chinese people go to Cantonese style dim sum restaurants.

With this simple recipe, you don’t need to feel guilty for dumping leftover expiring milk anymore.

*Note that I meant “expiring milk” not “expired milk”. If your milk starts to smell bad, the heating process might kill bacteria, but won’t remove the acid or the unpleasant smell. You can probably water your plants with expired milk to help them grow stronger.

Tips for Making Fried Milk

1. Plan ahead

Before you start to cook the milk, brush the container with a thin layer of neutral oil (or melted butter), so that you will be able to unmold the milk filling easier later.

And remember that you will need to rest the milk filling in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours until it’s fully set. Don’t wait until your guests are hungry to start cooking.

2. Fried milk can be vegan friendly

You can substitute the milk in this recipe with any type of plant based milk, such as coconut milk, oat milk, soymilk, to make this dish vegetarian friendly.

When stirred and heated, the cornstarch will be able to firm almost all kinds of liquid into a pudding-like solid filling.

You can even try frying water with this method if you don’t mind its bland taste.

If you want to avoid eating eggs, you can substitute the eggs with plant based yogurt, mashed bananas, or chia water mixture (see more” vegan egg wash substitutes” here).

3. Wet Hand, Dry Hand Method makes you a cleaner cook

When making fried milk, we will be using the standard three-step breading procedure (cornstarch, eggs, then bread crumbs) to create a crispy out layer.

But how often do you end up getting sticky and messy hands when you dip your fingertips into these wet and dry ingredients?

Caren White from America’s Test Kitchen introduced this “wet hand/dry hand” method to keep your breading procedure neat and clean:

“Use your wet hand for wet ingredients and your dry hand for dry ingredients.”

Specifically,

1. Using right hand (your “dry hand”), coat your food with cornstarch.

2. Use right hand (your “dry hand”) to gently drop the food into the eggs. Using your left hand (your “wet hand”), evenly coat the food with eggs.

3. Use left hand (your “wet hand”) to gently drop the food into the bread crumbs. Using right hand (your “dry hand”), coat with bread crumbs.

4. Use right hand (your “dry hand”) to place the coated food on a dry plate. Repeat with the remaining pieces.

4. Best oil for deep fried milk

Vegetable oil, canola oil, and corn oil have high smoke points, neutral flavors, and reasonable prices. So I always choose from one of them for deep fried food.

Peanut oil also has a high smoke point (around 450˚F), but it has a strong peanut flavor which can be unpleasantly obvious in a dessert like fried milk. But peanut oil are perfect for making deep fried meat dishes if you like its smell and taste.

Butter and olive oil‘s smoke points (302˚F and 375˚F) are too low to deep fry food.

5. How to store fried milk

You can premake the pudding-like milk filling, keep it in a sealed container, and refrigerate it for up to 3 days.

When you are ready to cook, simply take out the milk filling, cut, coat, and fry it.

But only fry what you can eat. Fried milk won’t taste crunchy anymore after refrigeration.

6. Air fryer fried milk

The purpose of deep frying the milk cubes is to melt the milk filling a bit so that it’s creamy and soft, and to create a crispy outside layer.

Although this deep frying procedure won’t make your fried milk taste oily or greasy, I totally understand it if you still prefer air frying for health reasons.

To make fried milk with an air fryer: You can spray the air fryer basket and the breaded milk pieces with a thin layer of oil spray, air fry at 350 ˚F for 10 minutes, pause to flip the milk cubes, air fry at 350 ˚F for 5 to 10 more minutes until light golden.

Fried Milk vs Leche Frita

Leche frita (can be literally translated as “fried milk” in Spanish) is a classic Spanish dessert which is different but very similar to Chinese fried milk.

Although the origination of leche frita is uncertain, leche frita recipes include the steps of thickening the milk with flour, and seasoning the fried milk with sugar and cinnamon.

Chinese fried milk (炸鲜奶 in Chinese) was originated from Guangdong, where people are not used to adding cinnamon into their desserts. At the same time, sweetened condensed milk is one of the most often used sauce in Cantonese desserts, such as Hong Kong style French toast, Hong Kong milk tea, and Hong Kong Egg Tarts.

In conclusion, Spanish leche frita uses flour while Chinese fried milk uses cornstarch to thicken the milk. And Spanish leche frita uses cinnamon while Chinese fried milk uses sweetened condensed milk to season the finished dessert.

I personally don’t really care whether people think fried milk is a Chinese dish or Spanish dish.

I found it really cool to find out that our ancients from different cultures figured out so many similar methods to make delicious foods. We may not know each other’s language, but we can definitely communicate through similar cooking methods and foods!

EQUIPMENT you will need:

• Saucepot
• Rectangle container (Mine was 7in x 5in.)

INGREDIENTS  

For making the milk filling

• 400 g milk (Or plant based milk, such as coconut milk, oat milk, soymilk …)
• 50 g cornstarch
• 40 g sugar (Can also use sugar substitute)

For making the crunchy coating

• ½ cup cornstarch
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup panko (or breadcrumbs)

Others

• vegetable or canola oil (For deep frying)
• sweetened condensed milk (Optional as dipping sauce.)

Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Brush a rectangle container with a thin layer of neutral oil (or melted butter).

2. Add 400g milk, 50g cornstarch, and 40g sugar to a small saucepot. Stir until cornstarch has dissolved.

3. Turn on the heat to medium-high, continuously stir the milk mixture for about 5 minutes until it’s simmering. Reduce the heat to medium-low, keep stirring for about 3 minutes until it’s thickened to a Greek-yogurt-like texture (creamy but nearly solid).

4. Pour in the milk mixture to the oil-greased container. Let cool to room temperature.

5. Cover with its lid or food wrap, keep in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

6. Remove the lid, flip the container upside down, and transfer the milk pudding to a cutting board.

7. Cut the milk pudding into 12 equal size cuboids, about 2.5 x 1 x 1 inch each.

8. Whisk 2 eggs in a small bowl. Place ½ cup of cornstarch in a shallow bowl. Place 1 cup of panko (or breadcrumbs) in another shallow bowl.

9. To a small saucepot, add about 1-inch of vegetable or canola oil. Heat over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

10. Dredge each piece of milk pudding with cornstarch, dip into beaten eggs, then coat with panko. Place coated milk pudding on a plate, repeat with the remaining pieces.

11. Deep fry coated milk pudding over medium heat, 2 to 4 pieces at a time, for about 2 ½ minutes until light golden. Gently push them with chopsticks so that they don’t stick to each other in the pot.

12. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel to absorb excess oil. Repeat with the remaining pieces.

13. Serve warm with sweetened condensed milk.

My other fried recipes you will also enjoy: