Pudding was one of the allowed foods when Mrs. L.A. got out of the hospital. Dutiful husband that I am, I bought some Snack Pack Pudding – and some Jell-O pudding mix.
While I stirred the Jell-O tapioca pudding on the stove, I pondered what was in it. I decided that corn starch was what made it into pudding. I looked up a recipe, and I was right. Mrs. L.A. liked it. Next I made the Jell-O chocolate pudding. Having a tendency not to read boxes very carefully, I’d bought instant pudding mix. It was good, but I thought the texture and flavour were inferior to the stovetop mix. (Granted, different flavours; but still…)
So today I decided to try the from-scratch recipe. It’s cooling in the fridge, so I only tasted it (warm) off of the spoon I stirred it with as I was cleaning up. I think that the from-scratch pudding will be superior to the Snack Packs and the instant mix, both in taste and texture. I’ll have to wait until it’s chilled. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
I just bookmarked the recipe, thank you! I love pudding and buy the snack packs frequently, but you are right, nothing compares to real made on the stovetop pudding. I hope you and Mrs. LA enjoy!
I love homemade pudding. I’ve only made a simple vanilla cornstarch pudding and a from-scratch tapioca pudding, but I should try chocolate and other flavors, too. They’re not at all hard and they’re so much better than instant stuff.
Oh, yeah, once I made pistachio pudding too. It involved the overnight soaking in milk of roughly chopped pistachios. They turned the milk a pleasing light green. You discarded the soggy soaking pistachios and used the milk to make a simple cornstarch pudding, flavored with a little almond flavoring. The pudding is then sprinkled with freshly chopped pistachios before serving. Yum!
I’m surprised. Tapioca pudding is usually thickened with, well, tapioca. Other puddings are corn starch or flour or whatever starch you want. I’m surprised even that Jell-O’s has cornstarch in it. I would think there’d be no need.
I happened to be cooking tapioca pudding, but I was wondering, in general, how pudding went from milk to… well, pudding. I decided it was cornstarch, and pulled up the linked recipe to find that cornstarch was indeed the thickening agent for a generic pudding. I have no idea if the Jell-O tapioca pudding mix had any.
It’s one of those things I’ve never thought about. I don’t remember the last time I ate pudding, before The Missus had to eat soft foods. The linked recipe is the only one I opened after I wondered about the thickener. It looked so easy, I decided to try it.
It looks like it actually does. At any rate, pudding (in this sense) is milk thickened with starch. Custard is thickened with eggs. And then you have some unholy matrimonial of the two that can go either way.
If you like seriously chocolate chocolate pudding, this is a recipe worth trying. It’s the only chocolate pudding I stir myself (har!) to make or eat.
Silky Chocolate Pudding
Serves 6
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
8 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I use good quality bittersweet chocolate chips. Use 70% bittersweet if you want even more of a dark chocolate kick.)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Melt chocolate over super low heat in a pot with a heavy bottom.
Combine cornstarch, sugar and salt in a spouted mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides to incorporate the dry ingredients. Pour milk mixture over warmed, melted chocolate. The chocolate will instantly seize, but don’t worry about this. Cook slowly, stirring constantly, for 15 to 20 minutes, until the mixture smooths out, begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon. Continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Strain through a fine-mesh strainer (or skip this step if you’re a slacker like me who is absolutely certain that there is nary a lump her pudding) into a serving bowl or into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour into individual serving dishes.
If you like pudding skin, pull plastic wrap over the top of the serving dish(es) before refrigerating. If you dislike pudding skin, place plastic wrap on top of the pudding and smooth it gently against the surface before refrigerating. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days (ahem, good luck with that).
You can use a double boiler if you want to make sure of no scorching or lumps, but I never do. Just keep an eagle eye on your heat and keep up that stirring!
Pudding is always nice, but my absolute favorite comfort food is basic egg custard - the first thing I learned to make for myself, and Mom always made it for me when I was ill [I spent many months of my life with strep throat rolling into bronchitis rolling into pneumonia pretty much every winter. Didn’t really stop until I was well into my teens.
Hm, eggs, milk, nutmeg and liquid splenda instead of sugar, I think I am going to make myself a few ramekins of custard tonight.
Mine is bread pudding using egg custard, drizzled with vanilla sauce. My wife derides it when we eat out, saying “You order something made from throw away bread, and pay for it?”
Just yesterday, I was thinking about a story I’d read when I was about 10, about a lemon pudding that was so sublime it was “like a night on the sea”. Never did try it.
So, thinking about it, I look up the story and the recipe, and here it is. Gonna have to make this soon, see if it’s really any good.
I am just stumbling all over pudding recipes lately. Today I came across a reference to “orange fool” (which I won’t link because it’s political and off topic), which led to this video. It’s very similar to the lemon pudding recipe I linked to earlier, but it uses orange juice rather than lemon juice and doesn’t separate the eggs.
One must, of course, keep in mind that the “pudding” under discussion here is what Americans call pudding. That word has a vastly more expansive meaning in the UK. I think the closest an American ever comes to understanding that expansive meaning is when we eat bread pudding. Which, when done right, is totally to die for.
The tapioca I use has a recipe on the box for chocolate tapioca, which merely involves putting two ounces of semi-sweet chocolate in the pan and letting it melt as you cook the tapioca pudding. Yum. I also use chocolate in the custard for my bread pudding. Yes, there is a theme here.
