Pompompurin Pudding – Japanese Custard Pudding

Pompompurin pudding is a Japanese pudding (purin) where silky-smooth custard meets a heavenly caramel embrace.

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What Is Pompompurin?

Pompompurin is a cute and cheerful golden retriever dog character, and it is one of Sanrio’s many kawaii (cute) characters. 

Pompompurin usually wears a brown beret and is known for its love of food, especially pudding. 

The name “Pompompurin” is a combination of “pom pom,” representing the dog’s fluffy ears, and “purin,” which means custard pudding in Japanese. Purin is very similar to flan or caramel pudding.

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Purin (Japanese Custard Pudding) vs Flan

Japanese pudding and flan are both creamy, caramel-flavored desserts with a similar texture, but they have some differences in terms of ingredients and presentation.:

• Ingredients:
  • Purin typically consists of milk, sugar, eggs, and a caramel sauce. The custard base may have a higher ratio of milk to eggs compared to some Western flan recipes.
  • Flan typically includes ingredients like sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, eggs, and sugar. The caramel sauce is an integral part of flan as well.
• Texture and Flavor:
  • Both Japanese pudding and flan have a smooth and creamy texture due to the use of eggs and dairy. They are often chilled and served cold.
  • The flavor profile is rich and sweet, with the caramel sauce providing a slightly bitter and sweet contrast.
• Presentation:
  • While both desserts are often unmolded and served with caramel sauce on top, purin is commonly served in small, round containers, while flan may be prepared in larger molds.

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Ingredients

For the Caramel Sauce (Saucepan Method) – for 4 ramekins

• ¼ cup granulated sugar, 60ｇ
• 2 tablespoons water, 30ml

For the Caramel Sauce (Microwave Method) – for 1 ramekin

• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, 12.5g
• 1 ½ teaspoons water, 7.5ml

For the Purin

• 2 eggs, large
• 1 egg yolk, large
• ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, 65g
• 1 ¼ cups milk, 300ml
• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, 30ml
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Decoration

• ¼ cup Chocolate chips, 50g
• 4 Wilton Mini Daisy Royal Icing Decorations

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How to make Pompompurin Pudding

For the Decoration

1. Place a heatproof bowl over a saucepan with simmering water (double boiler). Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
2. Add chocolate chips to the bowl.
3. Stir the chocolate gently and continuously as it melts. Be patient and avoid overheating.
4. Once the chocolate is almost completely melted, remove the bowl from the heat. The residual heat will continue melting the remaining chocolate. Stir until smooth.
5. Pour the melted chocolate into a piping bag and pipe Pompompurin’s beret hat, face, ears, and paws on a sheet of cellophane or wax paper. Let them harden on a flat surface.

For the Caramel Sauce (Saucepan Method)

1. In a saucepan, put sugar and melt it over low heat while gently shaking. When about 70% has melted, stir with a spatula or similar tool to completely dissolve it.
2. When bubbles start to form and change from fine bubbles to large bubbles, turn off the heat, add 1 tablespoon of water, mix, and once blended, add another tablespoon of water and mix. (If it solidifies, heat it gently again.) Once done, immediately pour it into a container and let it cool as it is.

For the Caramel Sauce (Microwave Method)

1. Mix 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of water, microwave it for 2 – 2:30 min at 600w. Add ½ teaspoon of water (caution: the sugar will splatter) and mix well. Repeat this for 3 more times for each cup

For the Purin (Japanese Custard Pudding)

1. Add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix until well combined
2. Strain the custard mixture with a fine mesh seaves twice or more until smooth
3. Pour the liquid into four ramekins evenly. Tightly cover each ramekin with sheets of aluminum foil.
4. Boil water in a wide and deep pan with a lid (I used a Cuisinart pan in 11-inch diameter and 2-inch deep). The amount of water should cover half of the height of the ramekins. 
5. Place the ramekins in the boiling water, cook for 7 minutes with the lid closed, and turn off the heat. Leave the cups in the pan for 7 minutes with the lid closed. When 7 minutes have passed, remove the ramekins from the pan and let them sit at a room temperature until they cool down enough to touch.

6. Rest the ramekins in a refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

To Decorate

1. Remove any water that accumulated on top of purin.
2. With a tweezer, place and arrange the chocolate decoration on the surface of the purin.
3. With a tweezer, place a Wilton Mini Daisy Royal Icing Decoration on each purin

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If you like this Pompompurin pudding, you may also like:

• Blueberry Mousse Cake
• Oreo White Chocolate Balls – Minions
• Hello Kitty Cake Roll – A step by step recipe with a template

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