Purin (Caramel Custard Pudding) is a popular Japanese dessert. A smooth creamy custard pairs with a slightly bitter caramel sauce. Even if you don’t like caramel, you will fall in love with this pudding. Make them ahead and serve on a dinner party!
We went on a very needed vacation to Maui last week. It was our first time in Hawaii. We spent a lot of time relaxing and eating good food. I am very inspired and have many new recipe ideas. I will share more about Maui in a few weeks.
For now, let’s talk about this purin dessert. “Purin” means “pudding” in Japanese. Although it’s called pudding, it’s more like a flan. Purin is very popular in Japan. You can easily find them in restaurants, grocery stores and even convenient stores. Some come in jars and some are served flipped like a flan on a plate.
Sanrio even created a character based on a purin. The character is a dog and named Pompompurin, which looks a lot like a purin with a yellow body and a dark brown beret. You can see him next to the purin in my pictures. He is so adorable!
In a purin, there are two layers. One is the custard. The custard is a mixture of eggs, heavy cream, milk and sugar. It became set after being baked in a water bath. It’s smooth, soft, and creamy. Then, there is the caramel sauce. It’s made from sugar and water. Sugar was melted until deep amber in color, then water was added. The caramel is like a hard candy when cooled. But when it was added to the glass jars and baked with the custard. The caramel turned into a sweet syrup with a slight bitterness. When pairing with the custard, the flavors reminded me of a crème brulee.
What I love about this purin is that it’s not too sweet and it’s pretty light. The amount of pudding is just right. They are served in individual jars and can be made 3 days ahead. It’s the perfect little sweet thing to end a dinner party. Even though Bryan and I are not a huge fan of caramel, this pudding tasted nothing like the caramel that we are used to. We love this dessert. I can’t say enough good things about this dessert. Hope you give them a try!
Purin (Japanese Caramel Custard Pudding)
Ingredients
Caramel Sauce:
- 30 grams sugar
- 2 teaspoons water (divided)
Pudding:
- 320 grams whole milk
- 80 grams heavy cream
- 80 grams sugar
- 2 whole large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300˚F (150˚C). Prepare 5 (4-ouces) glass jars or ramekins.
- For the caramel, in a small saucepan, combine sugar and 1 teaspoon water. Cook over medium heat, stirring often with a high heat resistant rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Sugar will form clumps, but melt eventually into a dark amber color sauce. Add the 1 teaspoon water into the sauce. Be very careful, the caramel will bubble rapidly when water is added. Quickly divide the sauce into the glass jars as the caramel will harden. Don’t worry if not every jar have the same amount of sauce and the sauce is not spread evenly at the bottom.
- Bring a kettle of water to a boil.
- For the pudding, in a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and egg yolk until light foam begins to form. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine milk, heavy cream, and sugar. Cook until sugar just melted, stirring often. Stir in vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste). Gradually add all the milk mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking continuously.
- Pour the mixture through a sieve into a large measuring cup. Remove bubbles with a piece of wax paper or parchment paper, by pushing it directly on top of the mixture and pulling it away. If needed, repeat one more time.
- Divide the mixture evenly into the glass jars. Prepare a water bath. Put the glass jars into a large baking pan or roasting pan. Pour enough boiling water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the jars. Bake just until the purin is slightly puffed on top, but still jiggling in the center, about 30 to 35 minutes.
- Carefully transfer the jars on to a cooling rack and cool until slightly warm. Cool in the fridge for at least 3 hours or until cold. Cover with plastic wrap when cool completely. Serve within 3 days.
Notes
- This recipe makes about 17 ounces of pudding.
- The glass jars I used is from buying Saint Benoit yogurt. I have been collecting them for a while. You can use ramekins, other small mason jars or even silicon molds, but make sure they are heatproof.
- When making caramel, be careful not to burn the sugar. Add the water when the sauce is deep amber in color.
- Divided the caramel into the jars quickly. As it cools, it will become too hard to scoop.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, Lokness. I am a major fan of flan and puddings in general but had never heard of purin. I am sure I will love it! Your photos make me want to grab a spoonful right through the computer! 🙂
They are so popular in Japan. You can find a huge selection in every convenient store. Smoothy & creamy! You will like how they taste. 🙂 <3
This is incredible recipe lokness…and it’s looks sooo good & more delicious…i will definitely make this for my kid….Thanks for sharing & keep shared your new amazing recipes….!
Thank you so much for your sweet comment, Madison! I love these pudding, hope you and your kids would too. 🙂
OMG I love how you put Pompompurin in your photos – soooo cute! And your purin looks absolutely FLAWLESS! I need to start collecting some little glass jars stat so that I can make a ton of these and eat them every day, they seriously look soooo good. Thanks so much for the recipe Lok, definitely saving it for later!
I fell in love with these from a shop in Yudanaka, I like when they add bits of apple to them. They also sold purin ice cream but it was too cold to be eating ice cream.
Oh, apple is an interesting addition! I would love to see what purin ice cream tastes like. Sounds amazing! 🙂
this type of dessert is really common throughout latin america too thanks to the spanish. Japanese got it from the Portuguese. Portugal, france and spain fight over who the real creators are.
Yes, it’s! It’s too hard to figure out who is the original. But all I know is purin is very popular in Japan. You can find them in every convenience stores. 😊
I am looking for the caramel custard pudding to eat in the morning and your recipe is the great recipe for me. The taste is really good. Thank you so much for your sharing.
Thank you Alice for letting me how it went! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed the pudding. Have a wonderful day! 😊
Are you from another country? I don’t want to have to convert everything. Besides…all this is is custard or a Creme Brulee. Moving on.
Thank you for taking the time to comment, Nini. I live in the US. I know it’s convenient to measure with tablespoons & cups. But when it comes to baking, accuracy is everything. Many baking blogs & cookbooks also use grams as measurement. Digital kitchen scale is pretty affordable these days, like $20. It’s totally worth investing in one!
Japanese purin is not exactly like creme brûlée, it’s much lighter and a stronger caramel flavor. I would say it’s more like a flan. It’s different, yet delicious! 😉
Sounds delicious . May I know the temperature Of the oven when the pudding is inside ?
The oven is preheated to 300˚F (150˚C) and it remains the same when baking. Hope you will give this a try!
Thank you so much for this recipe!
I made this for my husband’s birthday as Japanese Purin is his all time favorite. The pudding came out perfect and we both devoured them all in a day.
I did notice, however, after making it, that I missed the Vanilla Extract. It wasn’t included in the Instructions, so I completely forgot it. I’m planning to make another batch soon and was wondering when is the best place to add it? Perhaps in the milk mixture?
Thanks!
Good catch on the vanilla! I completely forgot about that. I added it back to the recipe. Vanilla should be added to the milk mixture right before adding to the yolk mixture. Thank you!
So glad that you guys liked it! This dessert is one of my all time favorites too! 😊 Have a great weekend!
So as of right now I’m letting the mixture cool before putting it in the fridge and I have to ask because I’m a but confused, by puffy do you mean it gets slightly firmer but not really? Because my pudin is still liquid and I think I might have overcooked it (I cooked it in the oven for 35) and now there’s a bit of brown on top, like a toasty color just floating around in pieces
Hi Mars! After baking, the purin should be almost set and the center should jiggle a little. “Puffy” means the center puffs up slightly, but shouldn’t take on any color. If they’re still liquidy, something may have gone wrong. It could be the water bath is not hot enough or the oven temperature is off. Let me know what they’re like after they are out of the fridge. Hope this helps.
Great recipe! I made it according to your recipe and the taste is great! Everyone in the family likes it, it makes me happy. Thank you
Thank you so much! That’s awesome to hear that your family enjoyed these! I’m happy that they work out. Thanks for letting me know. Have a great day! 😊
your recipes continue to amaze me and have become favorites in our household. I cannot wait to see what else you come up with and we will forever continue to use your recipes!!! I CAN NOT WAIT for your cookbook to come out!!!!
Thank you so much for your kind words and your support! 😊
I have tried this and it turns out well.
Although I steam it instead of baking it and it turns out just fine. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this recipe, I now have a go-to recipe for egg pudding.
Thank u for the receipe Ms Lokness
But can you help me? I did all the step in the receipe but my purin still liquid after baking ='(
Thanks before
Hi Feli, I’m sorry to hear that. I would say to read the ingredient list to see if you have used everything. Then maybe check your oven temperature. Make sure the temperature is correct. If you used a bigger container, maybe bake a little longer. Did you have any trouble making the caramel bottom?
Hi, I was trying this recipe but it was liquid after 35mins in 300f what should I do I tried 350f for another 10 mins it was still liquid.
Hi Kent, I would definitely cook for longer. The pudding should jiggle a little when shaking the glass.
Hi Kent!
From my experience, if you’re using larger containers it can take up to an hour (I’ve tried it with containers triple the size used in the recipe and just had to bake it longer). I also find the pudding kind of looks a little liquid-y when you first take it out of the oven (meaning it’s not supposed to be hard!). Once it cools, it’ll solidify a bit. Hope that helps!