Days are turning warmer and if there’s a dessert that’s better the colder it is it’s tres leches. This was my mom’s house CLASSIC summer dessert: tres leches. Always with whipped cream, fresh fruit and reaaaally moist inside, like it should be.
In summer it would DEFINITELY be topped with mango slices which are a dessert on their own in Perú. During winter or off mango season it would be canned peaches in slices as well. Of course the fruit that it goes with is completely up to you and you can vary it according to what’s available at the market / supermarket, but I recommend that it has a bit of acidity as a counterpart to the sweetness of the tres leches.
Some people like tres leches with meringue, not me haha. I prefer it with cream because the meringue is even sweeter than the tres leches so it ends up like a punch of sugar. With the cream you can regulate the sugar adding only a bit or even none at all and it compensates the sweetness. You cannot do that with a meringue because the amount of sugar needs to be double the weight of the egg whites in order for it to be perfectly fully.
Another thing I want to specify is that you cannot make layered cake out of this tras leches which you can sometimes find filled with dulce de leche. This is because it’s simply way too moist and it would be like trying to make a cake out of mud haha. Also I don’t like it in this version because it’s sweet enought WITHOUT the dulce de leche, but I get that people with extremely sharp sweet tooth love it 🙂 <3.
This dessert is nicer the colder it’s served and in my opinion it’s best to leave it overnight in the fridge to give the flavours a chance to come together. So it’s perfect if you have a lunch because you can make it the day before and just whip cream and serve when the time comes :).
My Mom's Tres Leches
Ingredients
For the cake
- 3 eggs at room temperature
- 50 g evaporated milk
- 190 g sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- 130 g all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
For the 3 milks
- 255 g evaporated milk
- 280 g condensed milk
- 210 g whipping cream
To decorate
- 200 ml whipping cream, cold
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- fruit of choice
Instructions
For the cake
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Whip up the eggs with the sugar to ribbon stage. Watch the video above to see what that looks like.
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Mix in the evaporated milk and vanilla essence using folding motions with a spatula.
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Repeat with the flour, salt and baking powder. Always be careful not to leave flour at the bottom of the bowl where it tends to sink.
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Put the dough into 180ml ramekins or a 20x30cm mould and take to a preheated oven at 180C for 20-30min or until you can insert a stick at the center and it comes out clean.
For the 3 milks
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Mix them and add to the cake while it's hot. This is really important to maximize absorption.
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Let cool to room temperature and take to the fridge for at least 4 hours or ideally overnight to give the flavours time to mix blend in and also the colder it is the nicer it becomes 🙂
To garnish (right before serving)
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Whip the cream with the icing sugar until fluffy.
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Garnish with the whipped cream and fruit of your choice. The nicest thing is to use fruit that have a bit of acidity like mangoes, peaches and berries to counterpart the sweetness from the tres leches.
