Bingsu
Korean shaved milk ice piled high and topped with a strawberry compote simmered for 10 minutes and a drizzle of condensed milk.
Photograph credit: Nokcha-bingsu by Jay Bahc · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Bingsu: Step by Step
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Stir the milk and the 4 tablespoons condensed milk together. Pour into a shallow tub and freeze for 4 hours until solid.
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Simmer the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a pan for 10 minutes until syrupy. Cool.
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Break the frozen milk into chunks, let it soften for 2 minutes and shave it in a shaving machine or food processor into 2 chilled bowls.
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Spoon over the strawberries, drizzle with the extra condensed milk and scatter with almonds.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Things to Watch For
- Let the frozen milk soften for a couple of minutes before shaving.
- Chill the bowls ahead of time.
- Serve at once; the snow melts quickly.
A Little Background
A bowl of bingsu looks like a snowdrift, and the main difference from other shaved ices is what it is made from: frozen sweetened milk, not frozen water. That gives the snow a creamy, soft flavour with no icy edge, and a texture that melts on the tongue. Milk makes the difference.
Stir milk with condensed milk until combined, pour it into a flat tray and freeze it solid, which takes about four hours. Break the frozen slab into chunks and let them soften for a couple of minutes before shaving. If they are too hard, the blade chatters and gives chips instead of fine curls. A food processor makes a coarser but still lovely snow if no ice shaver is at hand. Use a chilled bowl.
The compote is strawberries simmered with sugar until soft and syrupy, then cooled. Heap the milk snow into two bowls, spoon over the fruit and drizzle with a little more condensed milk. Bring spoons and eat quickly, working in from the edge. Spoons only.
To Go With It
Mochi · Fresh mango · Cornflakes · Barley tea
Leftovers
Best eaten at once. The compote keeps for 4 days in the fridge.
Common Questions
How long does Bingsu take to make?
10 minutes of preparation and 10 minutes of cooking, plus 4 hours of Freezing, so allow 4 hours 20 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 2.
Bingsu Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published .
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