The Hong Kong Milk Tea Canelé scaled to fill a 24-mold tray. Strong Ceylon steeped into the milk + evaporated milk for the cooked-milk note. Same ratios, same method as the single batch — just sized for the full tray (and the full-tray oven handling).

Ingredients

   
924g milk (for steeping)
40g strong black tea, loose (Ceylon or a HK-style blend)
110g evaporated milk
84g heavy cream
99g butter
2 vanilla beans (or 16g vanilla extract), optional
352g granulated sugar
4g fleur de sel
2 whole eggs (~110g)
5 egg yolks (~90g)
187g AP flour
33g cornstarch
  Nonstick spray for molds

Steps

  1. Heat the milk to 175°F — do not boil. Off heat, add the loose tea, cover, and steep 12–15 minutes for a strong, slightly astringent infusion.

  2. Strain out the leaves. Weigh the infused milk and measure out 748g — top up with fresh milk if short (the recipe starts with extra to cover absorption). Return the 748g to the pot with the cream, evaporated milk, butter, and vanilla and warm gently to melt the butter.

  3. In a bowl, whisk sugar, salt, eggs, and yolks together.

  4. Slowly pour about ¼ of the warm infused milk into the egg mixture, whisking to temper. Sift in flour and cornstarch, whisk until smooth.

  5. Gradually add the remaining milk, whisking until smooth.

  6. Strain through a sieve. Refrigerate overnight (24 hours minimum).

  7. Coat 24 molds with nonstick spray. Stir rested batter gently. Preheat oven to 525°F (550°F for a full tray with no steel — see the full-tray oven notes in Big-Batch Canelé). Fill each mold with ~75g.

  8. Bake at 525°F for 11 minutes, then drop to 400°F and bake 50–55 minutes more (a full tray browns slower; evaporated milk also browns faster, so watch the last ~10 min and pull at a deep mahogany).

  9. Unmold immediately onto a cooling rack. Cool 2 hours. Eat the same day.

Analysis

Total batter weight: ~1804g (after straining the leaves; excludes mold coating)

Component Amount %
Structure solids (flour + cornstarch) 220g 12.2%
Fat (butter, cream, evaporated milk, milk, yolk) 185g 10.3%
Sugar (added + lactose) 405g 22.5%
Liquid (milk, cream, evaporated milk, egg water) 933g 51.7%
Egg/milk protein 62g 3.4%

The single-batch HK milk tea ratios at 2.2× the volume — structure ~12% (custardy), fat ~10% (the cream + evaporated milk richness), sugar trimmed to offset the evaporated lactose. Nothing about the larger batch changes the texture; only the oven’s heat recovery does (see Big-Batch Canelé).

Notes

  • Straight 2.2× scale-up of the single Hong Kong Milk Tea Canelé, eggs snapped to whole counts (2 whole + 5 yolks), the rest scaled to match — identical ratios, so it bakes the same. Only the full-tray oven behavior changes.
  • Full-tray oven handling is the real variable at 24 molds in a home oven — preheated baking steel, hotter/longer preheat, don’t open the oven to fight mushrooms, bake-12-at-a-time fallback. All of it is in Big-Batch Canelé’s notes; it applies here unchanged.
  • Evaporated milk browns faster (more lactose + milk solids), on top of the deep shell canelés already want — so favor the 400°F second stage and judge by color, not the clock.
  • Sugar is trimmed (352g vs a strict scale of the base’s 374g) to offset the evaporated milk’s lactose, keeping it on the less-sweet side HK milk tea is known for — finish with a condensed-milk drizzle if you want it sweeter.
  • Milk starts at 924g (vs the 748g measure-back) to cover what the leaves soak up; weigh the strained milk and measure back to 748g so absorption can’t dilute the batter.