My mom frequently made tapioca pudding from Minute Tapioca. I loved this pudding, and just a couple of months ago bought a box and made and tasted some for the first time in about forty years. I still loved it, but I was intrigued by also seeing real “tapioca pearls” for sale at the supermarket. I determined to make some pudding from pearl tapioca.
The recipe was more involved than making Minute Tapioca. You have to soak the pearls overnight, then cook them in milk for half an hour in a double boiler, then proceed with tempering beaten egg yolks and then folding the mixture into beaten egg whites.
Wow, is this stuff good. Fluffy, custardy, and imbued with hundreds of little gelatinous, translucent tapioca balls. I’m going to make it this way from now on. I think I can buy even bigger tapioca pearls, too, which I would like.
Who likes tapioca pudding? Or is it an old-fashioned dessert that no one eats anymore?
If you make it, do you have any variations on it to recommend?
I like tapioca pudding even though, or maybe because, it is old fashioned. I used to make the Jello pudding version for my brother and me once a year or so. Now, I get a bite of it at Sweet Tomatoes a few times a year.
If you want to avoid the hassle of the double boiler, I’ve found that using a microwave recipe works very well. Unfortunately, you still have to plan far enough ahead to soak the pearls.
I’ve also used a slow cooker method, but the results were inconsistent texture-wise.
As far as variations, throwing a cinnamon stick into the mix during the cook changes up the flavor nicely.
Tapioca pudding is one of my favs. I prefer chocolate pudding, but there’s not another pudding flavor I prefer to tapioca. And I have always enjoyed the consistency of the tapioca pearls in the pudding.
Bugs me that this dessert is so rarely found in restaurants.
I adore tapioca pudding, the Minute Tapioca. I used to make it for picky eaters with an extra egg and lots of vanilla, still make it to this day on occasion. It’s like a firmer egg custard, good with peaches or berries and a squirt of whipped cream. Tapioca is often on the menu at diners, and it is always a commercial preparation, like Kozy Shack. Which isn’t bad!..I also like rice pudding. I made some once using ALL cream, simmered on the stove and mixed with cold whipped cream, and it was divine, but a very special occasion kind of thing.
I really enjoyed tapioca pudding as a kid. My dear old grandmama made it occasionally. Haven’t tasted it for over forty years. Or any other sort of pudding, come to think of it. I haven’t much of a sweet tooth, and it’s just not on my radar.
I love tapioca pudding and make it from scratch. I recently made it with big pearls, but they took forever to cook, even though I’d soaked them. And after sitting in the fridge for a day, some of them were hardening in the center again, for some reason.
Love me the tapioca. I think I made it from scratch once, and it was just OK. But the minute tapioca is amazing. I usually trim a bit of the sugar off the recipe because it’s just a tad too sweet for me.
Digging a bit deeper online, I’m seeing recipes for coconut milk tapioca pudding. It’s cooked until it’s a bit runnier than the vanilla kind, chilled, and then ripe mango chunks are floated in the soupy pudding. This is sounding all kinds of good to me, especially with the summer heat coming on. I think I’ll try it.
I like it! I don’t know if my mom made it from Minute Tapioca or if she bought a tub of it. I’m sure she never made it “the long way.”
I remember once I was at my grandma’s and she had tapioca in a canister on her counter. I was like “oh boy, I best those little beads taste like candy!” They do not.
