Roasted-Buckwheat Custards (Soba-Cha Puddings) Recipe

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C). Bring a kettle of water to a boil. In medium saucier or saucepan, combine cream with soba-cha and bring to a bare simmer over medium heat, stirring and scraping the bottom and sides frequently with rubber or silicone spatula to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes.

Fine-strain infused cream into heat-proof measuring cup, pressing down on soba-cha to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard soba-cha. Add enough fresh cream to infused cream to top it up to 1 1/2 cups total. Season with a scant pinch of salt.

In clean medium saucier or saucepan (you can also use the same one from step 1, as long as it has cooled sufficiently that it won't cook the yolks), whisk egg yolks with sugar, then pour hot infused cream into egg yolk mixture while whisking constantly. Set over medium-low heat and cook, stirring and scraping bottom and sides of pot with rubber or silicone spatula, until custard registers 140°F (60°C) on instant-read thermometer. Remove from heat.

Fine-strain custard, then divide into ramekins and set ramekins in baking dish. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil, leaving small opening in the foil, and transfer to oven. Pour prepared boiling water into baking dish, being careful not to splash it into ramekins, until water comes about 3/4 of the way up ramekin sides. Seal foil and bake custards until just set, 30 to 45 minutes.

Carefully remove baking dish from oven, making sure not to slosh water, and let custards cool in water bath for about 1 hour. Remove ramekins from water bath, cover with plastic, and refrigerate until fully chilled, at least 3 hours.

Custards can be refrigerated for up to 5 days. To serve, top with whipped cream and garnish with a few stray roasted buckwheat seeds.