Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Mmmmm...Homemade Pudding

I love Everyday Food. It's a magazine and also a show on PBS. And once a week, it's a little newsletter in my email. This week one of the recipes was chocolate or vanilla pudding, and since I had all the ingredients on hand, I thought I would give it a shot.
Homemade chocolate pudding is very good, it turns out. Though Brad and I agreed, if you have a box of instant pudding, it will does just fine; homemade requires some planning since it has to chill for 3 hours, plus the thirty minutes it took to cook it. It was better than instant though, and there's something magical about making food from scratch. Plus, it's worth checking out what you can make if you make this pudding. And oh yeah, it uses corn starch and is naturally gluten-free.
Here's the recipe for all to enjoy. It really is simple if you're vigilant, patient, and ready for pudding...in about three hours.

From Everyday FOOD

2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (if making chocolate pudding)
2 1/2 cups milk
4 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1. Place a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl; set aside. In a medium saucepan, off heat, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt. If making chocolate pudding, add cocoa powder. Very gradually (a few tablespoons at a time) whisk in milk, taking care to dissolve cornstarch. Whisk in egg yolks.
  2. Whisking constantly, cook over medium heat until the first large bubble forms and sputters. Reduce heat to low; still whisking, cook 1 minute. Remove from heat; immediately pour through sieve into bowl. Stir butter and vanilla into hot pudding.
  3. Place plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding (to prevent skin from forming); chill at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Before serving, whisk pudding until smooth; divide among four serving dishes.

5 comments:

Katie said...

Holy Smoke, Meg! Didn't you just have a little, adorable baby? What are you making delicious pudding? I'm impressed. And I think I'm going to try to make this.

kirsten said...

We grew up with homemade pudding and one hint to avoid getting a "skin" on top was to cover the top with a layer of "waxed paper" (something that preceeded "saran wrap") - but as kids, we always thought the "skin" was the best part of the pudding. Now don't I sound like someone's old grandma!
Mom

meg said...

Anyone remember that Seinfeld about pudding skins? I should find a way to just make pudding skins...it might be marketable, yeah?

Chelsea said...

Can you eat the pudding warm or is it too runny? I always liked eating cook-and-serve (from box) pudding hot.

meg said...

Good question about the warm pudding--it's pretty runny, but I think it would be fine. I'm not sure how it would compare to the boxed kind that way, but I bet it's similar. Let me know if you try it!