Favorite Pudding

When I sat down to figure out what I’d make next, I realized I hadn’t yet dipped into the “puddings” section of great-grandma Cora’s recipes. As I scanned them to see what I had ingredients for, “favorite pudding” jumped out at me. I mean, if it’s the favorite, it’s gotta be a good place to start, right?

Initial thoughts on the recipe

Nothing struck me as too terribly weird about this recipe, which is a plus. It made it easy to assume I would like it.

I did get a laugh out of the suggestion to serve it with “liquid sauce.” Real specific there, eh? Also, I have to admit I’m not familiar with any non-liquid sauces (seriously, if you are, please enlighten me). Based on the relative simplicity of flavors in this recipe, I figured something creamy could be a good compliment.

Trying it out

So based on the fact that you bake it, I assumed that this is more like the British definition of pudding rather than the kind we usually think of here in the US. I have zero experience with this kind of pudding, and the recipe doesn’t have instructions for baking, so that’s where a lot of the adventure came in.

And let me be honest…I don’t think I did the most amazing job. I kind of forgot that you don’t test the doneness of a pudding the same way you would a cake, so I kept cooking it until a toothpick inserted into the center came out clean. For a pudding, other recipes I read pretty much rely on visual cues, such as a golden color and a puffed-up texture, or cook until the center is firm. I’m pretty sure I ended up overcooking it, but it certainly wasn’t ruined.

Now about the sauce: I thought it would be fun to try one of Cora’s sauce recipes just for accuracy’s sake. I saw she had a recipe for cream sauce, so I decided to give that a try. Here’s the weird part: there’s no cream in this cream sauce. It’s just water, sugar, butter, a little flour, and then a seasoning of choice (vanilla, brandy, nutmeg, chocolate, or wine). I thought maybe this would turn creamy when cooked over a stove? But no. If there was a magic to this cream sauce, I missed it.

Now that’s not to say the sauce was a failure. I had flavored it with vanilla extract, and overall it was a nice caramel-like sauce. A pretty good fit for the dish, actually — just not creamy.

The verdict:

Look, there were some trials and tribulations with this pudding, but overall it was a success. The flavor is subtle and simple. It would be a great fit for fall, considering the nutmeg and apple are the stars of the show.

It also lends itself well to a variety of sauces. I still stand by my original thought that a cream sauce would be good. Maybe a bourbon cream, like what would be served with a bread pudding. But the caramel sauce also worked well, and I’d recommend it! Just don’t go into it expecting cream.

So, is this deserving of the title “favorite pudding?” Well, I realize now the flaw in my original thinking: having not had the other puddings, I guess I can’t say for sure if it’s better than the others. But I can tell you that it’s pretty tasty. For me, I’d give it a solid 4/5.