A true lover of food has two stomachs: one for the main course and one for dessert. By Western standards, Chinese cuisine offers relatively few sweet, devilish delights, lacking the likes of cheesecake and chocolate fondue.

But, the Chinese revel in a small multitude of other desserts, one of which is shuangpinai (双皮奶, double-layered milk), a dish similar to but lighter and healthier than your average pudding, made even healthier with a few easy steps.

This Cantonese dessert literally means “double skin milk”, not exactly the most appetizing of names. But, if you swap whole milk for nonfat milk, you can lose both the complex skin and a whole lot of calories and still get shuangpinai’s white, alabaster goodness. This delicious dessert is rumored to have beautifying effects, scoff enough of the stuff and, apparently, your skin will be transformed into the glossy type as found in L’Oreal commercials—and I don’t mean the one with David Ginola either.

As the name suggests, shuangpinai famously has two layers of milk skin on the surface, each layer having its own unique characteristics: the top is fragrant and sweet, the second tender and smooth. Originating in Guangdong’s Shunde in the late Qing Dynasty (1616-1911), the dessert spread across the nation largely due to its simple recipe, affordability, and, of course, that creamy, milky taste. It is rumored that the shuangpinai’s creator was a cattle farmer constantly on the lookout for a way to preserve milk; so, he turned to boiling it, which he discovered caused a thin layer of skin floating on top of the milk to form, giving rise to the original recipe’s name. The entire family loved the taste of this type of milk with skin, and thus invented the first generation of double-layered milk.

The process of making double-layered milk is simple enough. All it takes is milk, eggs, sugar, a bowl, and a steamer. The only tricky part that requires a bit of trial and error is the forming of the two layers of skin, that is, if you go with the fatty recipe over our easier, healthier alternative.

After warming up the fresh milk, the first layer should cover the surface of the milk. To keep this layer intact, one has to delicately slice a small opening on the brim, and pour the milk slowly out of the opening to add the sugar and egg whites. The mixture should then be gently poured back into the bowl, slowly through the opening, and the first layer should float back up, leaving room for the second layer to form after steaming.

But, let’s face it: it’s bathing suit weather, and we don’t need that extra fat. So, Jing Yaa Tang is going to give us some tips to keep this delectable dessert diet friendly. Mainly, this involves the use of nonfat milk rather than whole milk. By getting rid of the skin, the cooking process is further simplified, and the milk pudding itself is still just as satisfying. Served warm or cold in a small bowl, the milk pudding should tremble slightly at the tap of the bowl, sending small ivory ripples across its creamy surface. Scoop up a spoonful, slide it in your mouth, and let it tickle your tongue as you feel the sensation of the milky jelly melting, slipping down the throat, and leaving a trail of sweetness all the way down the stomach. A tasty thrill indeed.

Ingredients:

6 egg whites

500ml milk

30g sugar

1 strawberry

Steps

1. Separate the egg whites and the yolks. This can be done easily by shifting the yolk from one side of the cracked eggshell to another and letting the egg white drop into the bowl.
2. Put sugar in a bowl, and then pour milk onto it. While pouring the milk, stir gently instead of beating to create foam. Keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved so the finished product does not taste grainy. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until smooth.
3. Pour the milk mixture into a bowl slowly while stirring in one direction.
4. Filter the mixture once or twice to get rid of the foam and overly thick parts of the egg white.
5. Pour the filtered liquid into bowls (fill only two thirds of each bowl). Cover the opening with a food wrapper and steam for 15 minutes. When the contents become similar to a jelly pudding, it is done. Make sure not to steam for too long. Remove the food wrapper as soon as it is done. Put two slices of strawberry on the surface, and voila, it’s ready to eat.