Categories: Beverage

Cheese Brûlée Milk Tea Recipe

Cheese brûlée milk tea is milk tea with cheese foam and topped with caramelized sugar. The cheese foam milk tea in this recipe can be served with or without the brûlée.

Equipment

culinary torch – We use this butane torch we bought from Amazon. It’s really small and compact, so it’s perfect for lil projects like milk tea!
electric mixer
mixing bowl
heat-resistant cup

As a reminder, it’s always good practice to have a fire extinguisher in your kitchen. If you’re playing with fire, do so responsibly.

Ingredients

Milk tea

1 cup water
3 bags tea of choice
milk any kind, adjust to your preference
ice

You can make any type of milk tea you like! We used black tea in this recipe, but oolong, green tea, jasmine, etc. are also great options. We suggest to use at least 3 bags of tea per 1 cup of water, because the tea could easily get diluted by milk and ice.

Cheese foam

1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cream cheese
¼ cup whipping cream refrigerated overnight

brûlée

1 tsp sugar for brûlée

How to make milk tea

There are two ways we enjoy making milk tea at home: the hot method and the cold method.

Hot method: heat water and let tea steep for 5 min.
Cold method: refrigerate cold water with tea overnight.

The hot method takes much less time, but we find that we get a bitter tasting tea. Be aware that if you use hot tea, it’ll easily melt the ice and dilute your milk tea. To balance this out, you may have to adjust the number of tea bags, add more ice, or add more sugar.

The cold method takes overnight, and we find that the tea tastes much smoother. And since the tea is already cold, it won’t melt the ice too fast and dilute your milk tea right away.

Either of these methods work very well with this recipe, and it’s really just a matter of preference. We prefer to use the cold method, but when we’re in need of milk tea ASAP we just brew it hot!

Finally, add milk of your choice and adjust to your preference. You can use regular milk, soymilk, oatmilk, almond milk – you name it! The milk you choose will affect the taste and creaminess of your milk tea.

How to make cheese foam

With only 3 ingredients, making cheese foam is surprisingly easy.

Mix the sugar and cream cheese together with a spoon or hand whisk. Mix for 3 min or until it becomes smooth.

First, you want to mix the sugar and cream cheese together. Use a spoon or hand whisk to mix them thoroughly. It’ll take a few minutes to soften the cream cheese, but keep mixing until the sugar and cream cheese are completely united with a smooth texture.

We’ve tried using an electric mixer at this step, but found that the sugar and cream cheese wouldn’t mix together properly and we just ended up with chunks of cream cheese in our foam. Use the spoon to press it all against the sides of the bowl – this will get rid of any chunks.

Add whipping cream and use an electric whisk for 2-3 minutes until you get a thick foam.

You can whip this to different consistency to your preference (soft peak, medium peak, stiff peak) – each one has its own characteristics and can be achieved by altering the whipping time.

Soft peak – whisk 1-2 min. The cream will be slightly runny and will “leak” into your milk tea when you add it. It’s very easy to pour into the milk tea, very aesthetically pleasing, and it likes to fall down to the bottom of the cup. You may need to add more foam though, because you need enough to stay on top for the brûlée.

Medium peak – whisk 2-3 minutes. The cream is thicker and will sit comfortably on top of your milk tea, then will become runny with time and heat.

Stiff peak – whisk 3-3.5 minutes. Similar to medium peak, but a little stiffer. It holds its shape if you want to shape a design to your topping.

We made medium peak foam. We liked how the sugar easily sits dry on top of it instead of getting too wet, and that after caramelizing it won’t get soggy right away. If you’re unsure of how you want the consistency, go for this.

How to brûlée the cheese foam milk tea

Now that you’ve poured a glass of iced milk tea and topped it with your cheese foam, you’re ready for the fun part!

Top the cheese foam with sugar. Torch for 5-10 seconds or until the sugar caramelizes into a golden brown color.

It’s best to use the torch as fast as possible (<10 seconds) because you don’t want to burn your sugar, damage your cup, or set off your fire alarm (speaking from personal experience haha.)

Keep the base of the flame close to the sugar for fast, intense heat. Aim only on the cheese foam. We suggest you torch for 5 seconds, then decide if you need to use it any further.

Tips for making this recipe

Use these tips to make your cheese brûlée milk tea a success!

Use ice cold whipping cream. Whipping it at a low temp is key to making the foam nice and fluffy. We like to chill our whipping cream overnight in the back of the fridge. Then we place it in the freezer for 5 minutes before use.
NO plastic cups. Use a mug or heat resistant glass. Boba shops also use metal rings as a heat protector, but we couldn’t find where to purchase one of those. Leave a comment if you know where we can find them!
When you fill a cup with ice, fill it high enough so that the cheese foam will have somewhere to sit on easily.
Aim the flame, because you don’t want to burn yourself, others, your cup, objects around you, etc. Aim the torch so that it only makes contact with the cheese foam. Be aware of how long the flame is and where it’s pointing.

Final Thoughts

Finally, an excuse to buy a culinary torch. Use this recipe for an exciting take on the trendy boba shop drink, cheese foam milk tea!