I had quite forgotten about purins. Michiko loves them, as she does all custards (she’s a dainty pescatarian vegan who can really take down a chou cream), and I must have eaten my fair share growing up. Purins are sold packaged in the refrigerated section of any Japanese grocery and are also common in pastry shops. I cannot actually remember them being my favorite, however. The caramel layer tasted bitter to me as a child. When I was in middle school though, we often ate Morozoff purins that were much milder and creamier, purchased by my father, Takashi, at Mitsuwa.
I ramble! Middle school was so long ago! Much more recently, some neighbors brought four home made purins to dinner. They assessed the purins critically. They were in the middle of a move and had run out of sugar, they said, not to mention that the caramel had hardened on the bottom of the molds. We ate them anyway, happily, and ended up taking custody over the Duralex tumblers they brought them in for another several months1. I used those tumblers shamelessly during this time to make chawanmushi and to measure gochugaru for kimchi (exactly a one cup measurement! so useful! I should really get my own!)
After that purin dinner, I explored purins obsessively, using the Chopstick Chronicle’s excellent recipe as a template. At first, I also tried to line the cups with caramel, but my caramel unfailingly lined the cup bottoms with an amber shellac. And then I realized that I live in the land of maple syrup, which is anyway much tastier, and started to finish the purins with a layer of maple syrup instead.
The aforementioned layer of hardened caramel
Since December, I have made purins based on cheesecake (topped with strawberry jam), matcha, hojicha, maple, and chai. I currently am blessed with a generous source of endless Petit Pot and reuse their adorable cases as the vessels for my purins. They are adorable and easily giftable. I don’t stray from The Chopstick Chronicle’s main recipe which starts with:
400g whole milk (heated)
3 large eggs
60g sugar
I thoroughly combine the eggs and the sugar in my Pyrex cup and slowly stream in the heated milk. I then pour this mixture into my Hario teapot to strain the egg mixture and stream this into Petit Pot containers that I have placed in the bottom of my donabe (you can use a different pot, but if you use a Le Creuset, make sure to keep the heat very low). Similarly as with chawanmushi, I fill the donabe about halfway up the cases with boiling water and steam on low heat for 10-14 minutes (they should shimmy when touched). Keep an eye on the pot, you don’t want to hear the cases rattle. Be gentle and be patient!
Remove the purins from the pot and let cool before placing in the refrigerator. Top with about 1 teaspoon of maple syrup before serving.
These adorable purins are still the caramel version. Now I skip the base layer of caramel and just top them with maple syrup.
Some variations!
For Matcha:
Whisk first approximately 2 teaspoons of matcha in about 1-2 tablespoons of boiling water and then proceed with adding the eggs and sugar.
For Hojicha:
Simmer the milk with approximately 2 tablespoons of hojicha tea leaves, proceed as normal. I also replace the sugar here with an equal quantity of brown sugar.
I am still perfecting my cheesecake, chai, and maple flavors. I have replaced the 60g of sugar entirely with maple syrup, but maple syrup is such a delicate flavor, it got rather lost in the milky purins and was a little too subtle in sweetness.
I ultimately returned the tumblers with two of my matcha purins. The purin circle of life.
Purins
My step-grandmother...,she hardly cooked any, but made instant purin from House brand box. I liked the simplest version..., just mix with hot water..., then placed into refrigerator. it was before the fancy Morozoff.