Fried Milk

Kitchen, Desserts

Preparation Time:

Note:

Leche Frita is a homemade dessert that came to Cuba with Spanish immigrants. This sweet treat is rarely found in a bakery. The ingredients: milk, eggs, flour, cinnamon, and sugar are the basics of many desserts in world cuisine. For Cubans, it is difficult to gather all of them at once; perhaps that’s why this dessert was only made at my grandmother's house in the countryside, where there were chickens and cows, but no cinnamon. I can’t prove that Leche Frita was a well-known dessert in Cuba. But I can assure you that I have seen my family make it, even using powdered milk. Our readers, with their comments and anecdotes, will have the final word on this topic.

Ingredients:

For the cream or curdled milk

750ml of whole milk
100g of powdered sugar
3 egg yolks
1 lemon peel
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon of vanilla
80g Maizena
40g butter

To fry the Milk

1 cup of olive oil, or sunflower oil
100g of wheat flour
1 egg (and you can add the 3 egg whites that you have left over from preparing the cream)
100g of white sugar
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Instructions:

The first step is to flavor the milk, but first, you need to separate a glass for the next step. Then put the rest of the milk in a saucepan over medium heat. When it starts to boil, remove it from the heat, add the lemon peel, butter, and vanilla. Cover it and set it aside.

Ingredients for Fried Milk / CiberCuba Kitchen

Separate the yolks and whites of 3 eggs. Put the yolks in a deep bowl and mix them with the powdered sugar. Set aside the 3 egg whites because you can use them later for coating.

In the cup of milk that you reserved before infusing the milk, dissolve the Maizena. Add this mixture to the egg yolks with sugar, beat well until everything is combined, and set it aside.

We return to the milk that has boiled and been infused with lemon, butter, and cinnamon. Strain the milk and put it back on the heat. When it starts to boil, add the mixture of egg yolks, sugar, milk, and cornstarch. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon, as it will thicken very quickly, and we must not let it stick to the bottom. When you can see the bottom of the pot as you pass the spoon through, it is ready to be removed from the heat.

Milk Dough / CiberCuba Kitchen

Pour the milk mixture into a mold previously greased with butter. As it cools, it will begin to solidify. Cover it with plastic wrap or seal the mold to prevent a crust from forming. Place it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours, although the best option is to leave it overnight. Once it is solid and cold, carefully turn it out onto a large tray or cutting board to avoid breaking it. Cut into equal pieces, rectangular or square, as you prefer.

To coat, we will first pass each square of solid milk through flour and then through beaten egg. I usually add the egg whites that I have left over from the first preparation to this egg to make the most of everything.

Pieces of Milk coated in flour and egg / CiberCuba Cocina

Fry them in a pan with plenty of oil. If you use a small pan, you will need less fat; the idea is for the oil to cover each portion about halfway. You should fry them for approximately 2 minutes on each side. Flip them until they are golden brown on both sides. Place them on paper towels to drain excess fat.

Fried Milk on absorbent paper / CiberCuba Kitchen

When you have them all fried, toss them in a mixture of white sugar and ground cinnamon. Plate them nicely and serve.

This recipe has many steps, but with practice, they can be simplified.

Fried Milk with Sugar and Cinnamon / CiberCuba Kitchen

I hope you enjoy the Fried Milk. Bon appétit!!

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