Serve it to an adult, and watch him turn into a baby. Eyes soften, cheeks relax, the head tilts just ever so slightly to one side and the shoulders surrender to a sigh.
There’s nothing like pudding to turn a grown-up into pudding.
Babies and kids still at the lunch-box stage take pudding for granted. Adults who are much more advanced in years return to it because it’s easy to eat. The lifelong pleasures of real pudding got lost in recent years, though, when people stopped making it at home and learned to look for it in packaged mixes and ready-to-eat refrigerated cups.
These days, when so many people are looking for comfort–from uneasiness with the world or just weariness with the weather–there is nothing like a spoonful of the real thing. Just in time, pudding and its custardy cousins have made a comeback.
Chocolate pudding is a favorite on the menu at Petterino’s in the Loop and the new Keefer’s in River North, as well as at AKA Cafe in New York City. Bradley Ogden’s Larkspur, Calif., Restaurant, the Lark Creek Inn, has a devoted following for its butterscotch pudding. At Home restaurant also in New York, the chocolate pudding has been on the menu since the restaurant opened nearly nine years ago. But butterscotch pudding was added more recently and is a current hit.
“Pudding is a simple luxury that most people understand,” said David Page, chef and owner of Home. “It was the first dessert that we thought about using. There is a comforting feel to pudding. It’s soft and it’s easy to eat and almost the texture of baby food; some people feel that is what comfort food is all about.”
The sure-fire sales of creamy desserts in up-scale restaurants can be tracked to the creme brulee craze that began more than a decade ago. While the dish is nothing more than a custard with a fancy name, diners loved cracking the glazed sugar crust to tap into the lovely cold cream beneath.
Now all kinds of puddinglike desserts are firmly fashionable in restaurants across the country. Caramel pot de creme is served in the tiny white china pots that give the dessert its name at Bacchanalia restaurant in Atlanta. Panna cotta (or “cooked cream”) was revived with a spin, such as the saffron panna cotta with poached quince at New York’s Babbo restaurant or buttermilk panna cotta with huckleberry soup and lemon granita at Auberge du Soleil in Rutherford, Calif.
Pudding cakes got into the act, as with the vanilla buttermilk pudding cake offered by pastry chef Nancy Silver of MOD in Wicker Park. And one of the notable desserts at Craft restaurant in New York is a steamed lemon pudding cake, oozing a warm, tart custard.
But they are worth exploring in the home kitchen too. From-scratch puddings are every bit as rewarding as homemade cakes, cookies and other sweets.
Put away those store-bought mixes and prepared pudding cups and try your hand at the following recipes. You’ll bring real comfort–whatever the season or the reason–to those you love best. And that includes yourself.
A pudding primer
‘Custard puddings, sauces and fillings accompany the seven ages of man in sickness and in health,” Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker wrote in “Joy of Cooking.”
The authors were referring to the enduring appeal of the soft stuff, from babyhood to much later years. But pudding-style sweets and savories come in so many forms that it is possible to consume custard almost daily.
The word “pudding” deserves its own glossary. There is plum pudding, the spiced Christmas confection of steamed or boiled suet, fruits and nuts. There is Yorkshire pudding, more accurately described as a popover-style bread that accompanies roast beef. The beloved bread pudding is a dish of stale bread baked in custard, while tapioca and rice puddings have a milky base but don’t resemble the smooth puddings we know from the nursery. The British use “pudding” to describe desserts in general.
For most purposes, an American dessert pudding is a soft, smooth and creamy dish, made with milk and stabilized with cornstarch or possibly gelatin.
Beyond pudding, what are the differences among its relatives, custard and creme brulee or panna cotta and pastry cream? The distinctions can be subtle:
Bavarian cream or bavarois: A cold dessert made of custard, whipped cream, gelatin and flavorings.
Blancmange: Of French origin, a dessert made from ground almonds, milk and gelatin. Now it is more commonly prepared with cornstarch.
Creme caramel or flan: The French and Spanish names for a custard baked in a mold first coated with caramel. The finished dish is turned upside down and released from the mold, leaving a custard topped with a coating of liquid caramel.
Creme brulee: The translation of “burnt cream” is misleading, as this baked, chilled custard is not actually burned. Sugar is sprinkled on top and briefly broiled or flamed with a torch that melts the sugar. Then it hardens into a crust.
Curd: A thick, egg- and sugar-based filling or spread, sometimes thickened with butter and usually flavored with lemon.
Custard: Sweet or savory egg- and milk-based dishes, typically baked in molds. There also are “stirred” custards, which are cooked on the stovetop.
Mousse: A blend of sugar and flavorings fluffed with egg whites or whipped cream to make an airy dessert. Mousses also can be stabilized with gelatin for use as a cake filling.
Panna cotta: Italian for “cooked cream,” this is a molded dessert thickened with gelatin and often served with fruit or nuts.
Pastry cream: Milk- and egg-based filling, thickened with flour, for a variety of pastries, including napoleons, eclairs and cream puffs. They can be flavored with everything from vanilla and chocolate to coffee and liqueurs.
Pot de creme: Flavored custards baked in tiny pots, each with its own lid.
Sources: “Food Lover’s Companion,”
“The Good Egg,” “Joy of Cooking”
Smooth operations
Foods made with dairy and eggs require gentle handling and slow cooking to prevent curdling or toughening their proteins. That’s why recipes often call for tempering the egg mixture and cooking the final product in a water bath.
Tempering
Mixing cool or room-temperature eggs into a hot cream base is a recipe for curdled eggs. Instead, whisk a small amount–from a tablespoon to a quarter-cup–of the hot liquid to the egg yolks first. This “tempering” will raise the temperature of the eggs so that they don’t have such a shock when you whisk them into the rest of the hot liquid.
Passing the pudding mixture through a fine-mesh strainer before adding it to molds or serving dishes will ensure the smoothest pudding by catching any bits of curdled egg, but if you are not averse to a few lumps, that step can be skipped.
The water bath
Baked custards are cooked in a water bath, also known as a bain-marie, because it moderates the oven’s dry heat with steam heat.
All that is required for a water bath is a deep roasting pan. Place the pudding cups or mold in the pan and pour in enough scalding-hot water to come halfway up the sides of the molds. Placing a layer of paper towel on the bottom of the pan will help prevent the molds from sliding around.
And for safety’s sake, don’t attempt to carry a sloshing pan of boiling water across the kitchen to the oven. Instead, slide the rack from the heated oven and place the dry pan with the molds in it on the rack before adding hot water. Finish by covering the pan with foil (watch your fingers on the hot oven rack) then sliding in the rack to bake.
— Kristin Eddy
Serving tips
Baked puddings often are cooked and served in oven-proof custard cups, also known as ramekins. Baked puddings also can be prepared in one large oven-proof bowl, such as a souffle dish. All of these containers may be found in specialty kitchenware shops. Pot de creme pots, the ones with their own lids, are harder to find. You can check antique or secondhand stores for these; older ones often have charming shapes or decorations.
Good old cornstarch pudding, cooked right on the stovetop, can be served right from a big bowl and spooned out individually into small bowls or even martini glasses.
Not everyone likes his pudding cold; consider dishing out the pudding when it is still warm.
If you do prefer it chilled, cover the pudding tightly with plastic wrap or foil before putting it in the refrigerator. Pudding does not always form a skin on top, but if you want to be sure to avoid it, lay plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding. That will mar the smooth top, though, so it’s your choice.
— K.E.
Chocolate pudding
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Chilling time: 4 hours
Yield: 8 servings
This super-rich, deeply chocolate-flavored pudding is a favorite at Petterino’s restaurant in the Loop. We adapted it from a recipe by chef Mark Dorian.
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup half-and-half
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
9 egg yolks
1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine whipping cream, half-and-half, sugar and vanilla in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Heat just to a simmer; remove pan from heat. Add chocolate; stir to melt completely.
2. Whisk in egg yolks one at a time until blended. Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer. Divide pudding among eight 6-ounce custard cups; place in a deep baking pan and place in oven. Fill pan with enough scalding-hot water to come halfway up sides of custard cups. Cover with foil.
3. Bake puddings until set, 50 minutes. Allow puddings to cool in the pan 10 minutes. Remove from water bath; cool. Cover with plastic or foil, refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
Nutrition information per serving:
470 calories, 68% calories from fat, 36 g fat, 21 g saturated fat, 335 mg cholesterol, 45 mg sodium, 33 g carbohydrate, 6 g protein, 1 g fiber
Vanilla pudding
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Chilling time: 4 hours
Yield: 6 servings
This classic, cornstarch-based pudding is adapted from “How to Cook Everything,” by Mark Bittman.
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups half-and-half or milk
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1. Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a small saucepan. Whisk together eggs and half-and-half in a medium bowl. Add egg mixture to pan, stirring constantly over medium heat, until pudding thickens, 10 minutes. Do not allow to boil. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla.
2. Pour into custard cups or a large bowl, placing plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding. Refrigerate until chilled, 4 hours or overnight.
Nutrition information per serving:
300 calories, 60% calories from fat, 19 g fat, 11 g saturated fat, 205 mg cholesterol, 160 mg sodium, 23 g carbohydrate, 5 g protein, 0 g fiber
Vanilla bean buttermilk pudding cakes
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
This recipe, adapted from one by pastry chef Nancy Silver of MOD restaurant in Wicker Park, takes pudding one step further, into a warm cake.
3/4 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling custard cups
2 tablespoons butter
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
5 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup each: buttermilk, whipping cream
1/4 cup each: lemon juice, apple juice
4 egg whites
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat six 8-ounce custard cups with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle with sugar. Set aside.
2. Cream butter, vanilla seeds and all but 2 tablespoons of the sugar in bowl of electric mixer. Slowly add 1 egg yolk at a time; scrape sides of the bowl between each addition. Add flour; mix just until incorporated. Mix in buttermilk and cream. Mix in lemon and apple juices. Set aside.
3. Place egg whites in a clean mixing bowl; beat on high until foamy. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a stream. Beat to stiff peaks. Gently fold egg whites into batter in 2 additions.
4. Divide batter among custard cups. Place cups in a deep baking dish and place in oven. Fill pan with boiling hot water to come halfway up sides of cups. Bake until cakes have risen like a souffle and are golden brown on top, 30-40 minutes. Serve immediately for a soufflelike texture; for a cakelike texture, let cool to room temperature; invert cakes onto plates to serve.
Nutrition information per serving:
280 calories, 44% calories from fat, 14 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 145 mg cholesterol, 110 mg sodium, 34 g carbohydrate, 6 g protein, 0.2 g fiber
Butterscotch pudding
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Chilling time: 4 hours
Yield: 6 servings
Our tasters swooned over the rich butterscotch flavor in this beautifully creamy baked pudding, adapted from “Recipes From Home,” by David Page and Barbara Shinn (Artisan, $30).
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
6 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1. Place sugar in large, heavy saucepan; pour water evenly over sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium-high; cook without stirring until it turns golden amber, about 8 minutes. Remove caramel from heat.
2. Meanwhile, stir together cream, milk and brown sugar in heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until small bubbles appear on surface; remove from heat. Carefully pour hot cream into hot caramel; stir with a long wooden spoon or whisk.
3. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Place egg yolks in small bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup of the hot cream mixture into yolks. Stir yolks, vanilla and salt into remaining cream mixture. Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer into bowl. Divide pudding among six 6-ounce custard cups. Place cups in a deep baking pan and place in oven. Fill pan with scalding-hot water to come halfway up sides of custard cups. Cover with foil.
4. Bake puddings until set, about 50 minutes. (The center will jiggle a bit.) Remove from the water bath; let cool. Cover with plastic or foil; refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
Nutrition information per serving:
490 calories, 65% calories from fat, 36 g fat, 21 g saturated fat, 325 mg cholesterol, 255 mg sodium, 38 g carbohydrate, 6 g protein, 0 g fiber
