Hong Kong Milk Tea Canelé114
The custardy Canelé built around strong black tea and evaporated milk — the flavor of 港式奶茶 (Hong Kong milk tea) in a caramelized shell. No alcohol.
Ingredients
| 420g | milk |
| 38g | heavy cream |
| 50g | evaporated milk |
| 18g | strong black tea, loose (Ceylon or a HK-style blend) |
| 45g | butter |
| 1 | vanilla bean (or 8g vanilla extract), optional |
| 160g | granulated sugar |
| 2g | fleur de sel |
| 1 | whole egg (~50g) |
| 2 | egg yolks (~36g) |
| 85g | AP flour |
| 15g | cornstarch |
| Nonstick spray for molds |
Steps
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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.
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Strain out the leaves. Weigh the infused milk and measure out 340g — top up with fresh milk if short (the recipe starts with extra to cover absorption). Return the 340g to the pot with the cream, evaporated milk, butter, and vanilla and warm gently to melt the butter.
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In a bowl, whisk sugar, salt, eggs, and yolks together.
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Slowly pour about ¼ of the warm infused milk into the egg mixture, whisking to temper. Sift in flour and cornstarch, whisk until smooth.
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Gradually add the remaining milk, whisking until smooth.
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Strain through a sieve. Refrigerate overnight (24 hours minimum).
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Coat molds with nonstick spray. Stir rested batter gently. Preheat oven to 525°F. Fill each mold with 70g.
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Bake at 525°F for 11 minutes, then drop to 375°F and bake 50–55 minutes more.
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Unmold immediately onto a cooling rack. Cool 2 hours. Eat the same day.
Analysis
Total batter weight: ~820g (after straining the leaves; excludes mold coating)
| Component | Amount | % |
|---|---|---|
| Structure solids (flour + cornstarch) | 100g | 12.2% |
| Fat (butter, cream, evaporated milk, milk, yolk) | 84g | 10.2% |
| Sugar (added + lactose) | 184g | 22.4% |
| Liquid (milk, cream, evaporated milk, egg water) | 424g | 51.7% |
| Egg/milk protein | 28g | 3.4% |
A touch richer and a touch less sweet than the base custardy Canelé — keeping the cream and adding evaporated milk pushes fat to ~10% for the fattiness you want, while the granulated sugar is trimmed to 160g to offset the evaporated milk’s lactose and keep it on the less-sweet side that suits Hong Kong milk tea. Structure stays ~12%, so it’s still custardy. No alcohol.
Notes
- Hong Kong milk tea is defined by a robust, slightly bitter black tea (Ceylon-based blends, sometimes called “silk stocking” tea) plus evaporated milk. The cream stays in for richness (the fattiness of the base canelé), and evaporated milk is added on top for that characteristic cooked-milk-solid flavor — evaporated milk is concentrated whole milk (~8% fat), not a cream substitute, so it’s a flavor layer rather than a fat swap. Net result is a hair richer than the base.
- No alcohol here — the milk-tea flavor is the point and rum would muddy it.
- Steep strong and slightly astringent; the sugar and shell will soften it. Ceylon is the backbone of HK milk tea — use a strong Ceylon, or cut it ~1:1 with a plain Lipton-style black the way cha chaan teng blend grades. Cheap, brisk, broken-leaf tea is ideal here; bagged is fine (slit and weigh). See Steeping Tea into Milk for what tea to buy.
- Sugar is trimmed to 160g (from the base 170g) to offset the evaporated milk’s lactose and keep it on the less-sweet side HK milk tea is known for — the sweetness traditionally comes from condensed milk, so finish with a drizzle if you want it sweeter.
- Milk starts at 420g (vs the base 340g) to cover what the leaves soak up. Spent tea leaves retain roughly 2–4× their dry weight (around 2–3× for broken/CTC tea, up to ~4× for whole leaf), so your 18g takes up somewhere near 35–70g. The exact rate doesn’t matter — after steeping you weigh the strained milk and measure back to a clean 340g, so absorption can’t dilute the batter. The extra start just makes sure you have 340g left.