Pudding
Also see a History of Pudding
Pudding is a thick, soft dessert, typically containing flour or some other thickener (such as tapioca), milk, eggs, a flavoring, and sweetener. The earliest puddings of cereal, breadcrumbs and suet were stuffed in sausage skins, enclosed in a pastry and baked. Today, puddings serve as a main dish, such as corn pudding or as a dessert as in chocolate pudding, snacks or treats for special occasions. In Britain, it means the dessert course of a meal. Some puddings, such as bread and rice, are universally popular, but incorporate regional or cultural variations.
There are four major ways to prepare puddings: steamed, baked, boiled and neither cooked nor baked, but rather chilled in the refrigerator until it gels. No matter how prepared, all puddings have a silken texture and come in a wide variety of flavors.
- Steamed Puddings: Steamed puddings are made by mixing the ingredients and then pouring into a tightly covered mold. It then goes into a waterbath which is fashioned from a pot where the water only comes up 2/3 of the sides of the mold. The pudding is then steamed on the stovetop for hours with the heat on low until done. Steamed pudding in England is a moist, cake-like dessert that is steamed in a basin over a pot of simmering water, resulting in a soft texture. There are many varieties, from fruity and spicy Christmas puddings to simpler sponge puddings like treacle or jam, and even savory meat puddings. It is a traditional and versatile dish, often served with a sauce or cream.
- Baked Puddings: There are several different types of baked puddings. Some types of baked puddings begin on the stove and finish in the oven like rice pudding. In others, the ingredients are just mixed and baked in the oven such as Bread pudding.
- Boiled Puddings: Boiled puddings are the easiest and quickest to prepare. They are constantly stirred on the stovetop until thickened and can be made in such favorite flavors as vanilla, chocolate and butterscotch.
- Chilled Puddings: A mousse is an example of a pudding-like dessert that is not cooked or baked. Rather whipped cream and/or safe egg whites and/or gelatin is folded in with melted chocolate, pureed fruit or other ingredients. It is then chilled to gel and then served.
Pudding Types
BETTY: Dating back to colonial America, betties are baked puddings made of layers of sugared and spiced fruit and buttered bread crumbs. Though many fruits can be used, the most popular pudding is Apple Brown Betty, made with sliced apples and brown sugar.
BLANCMANGE [bluh-MAHNZH] A simple cooked pudding made of milk, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla; it contains no eggs. Gelatin may be substituted for the cornstarch. The hot mixture is poured into a mold, chilled, unmolded and served with a sweet sauce or fresh fruit. The original blancmange used pulverized almonds in lieu of cornstarch.
BREAD PUDDING: Bread pudding consists of bread, milk (or cream), sugar, eggs, and (sometimes) flavorings. But they could be put together in any number of different ways, yielding very different results, from a baked custard with slices of French bread on top to a rich, treacle pudding with sauce--really more of a pudding cake. In all, bread pudding should have a golden brown top made up of crispy pieces of bread with great chew, and a not-too-sweet pudding/custard, with some of the bread having been soaked and dissolved in the filling.
Dense white bread purchased at a local bakery makes the best bread pudding, so does Pepperidge Farm Hearty White Bread; both hold up well enough during cooking without being overly chewy and heavy, which can be a problem. To make a crust, reserving two cups of bread cubes to be put on top of the pudding just before baking was just the thing. Brush them with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
The filling should be rich and silky rather than thin and eggy. Baking at a low oven temperature of 325 degrees proved best because it's really a custard, which should be baked under low heat. Bread pudding should wobble like a Jell-O mold when removed from the oven, as continues to cook after removal. Another tip is to remove the pudding from the oven just as it begins to inflate and rise up high in the pan. A knife inserted into the custard should not come out clean but be partially coated with half-set custard.
DIPLOMAT PUDDING: This cold, molded dessert consists of alternating layers of liqueur-soaked ladyfingers (or sponge cake), jam, chopped candied fruit and custard (sometimes combined with whipped cream). Diplomat pudding is usually garnished with whipped-cream rosettes and candied fruit.
HASTY PUDDING: This easy, versatile dish was enjoyed by our Colonial ancestors both in the morning for breakfast and after dinner for dessert. It's a simple cornmeal mush made with water or milk and sometimes sweetened with molasses, maple syrup or honey. If the dish isn't sweetened during cooking, a syrup or sweet sauce usually accompanies a hasty pudding. It's served hot, sometimes with milk or cream.
"A wide range of successors to the cereal pottages of medieval times still existed in the form of sweetened cereal preparations such as frumenty, gruel, pap, and milk pottage of crumbled bread, barley, rice or sago. In their ingredients these closely resembled puddings (except for the absense of suet), but they were of a runnier consistency, and were cooked directly over the fire. Until the later seventeenth century milk pottages were eaten on fasting days...The only named pudding to be made by the pottage method was the 'pudding in haste' or 'hasty pudding' of southern and midland Britain. It was in effect a thicker form of bread and milk pottage. It was prepared by boiling milk or cream, adding breadcrumbs and some flour, with such enrichments as butter, eggs, raisins, currants, spices and sugar. The mixture was then brought again to the boil. It had to be stirred constantly as it cooked, but was soon ready: hence its name. The hasty pudding of northern England, Scotland and Wales, was however, quite a different matter, for it was simply the traditional oatmeal pottage and only in name resembled the newfangled puddings of southern Britain."
---Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago: Chicago] 1981 (p. 320)Food historians trace the genesis of hasty pudding to medieval grain pottages. These simple, filling, and quickly prepared dishes filled the bellies of rich and poor alike. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the first print evidence of this term to 1599. Recipes vary considerably, according to period and place. British Isle recipes generally employ oatmeal. Regional variations are noted. Early American versions were made, quite predictably, with maize.
INDIAN PUDDING: This hearty, old-fashioned dessert originated in New England. It's a spicy, cornmeal-molasses baked pudding that can sometimes include sliced apples. Indian pudding is usually served with whipped cream, hard sauce or ice cream.
MOUSSE: is the modern day version of pudding, with a smooth and creamy texture and is not cooked. Originally, the word mousse came from the French term meaning "foam" or "froth".
PLUM PUDDING: The name of this specialty comes from the fact that it originally contained plums, which it no longer does. Instead, this traditional Christmas dessert is made with suet, dried currants, raisins, almonds and spices. It's either steamed or boiled and is often served warm, flamed with brandy or rum, and accompanied by hard sauce.
PUDDING CAKES: Pudding cakes are basically egg custards, but with two improvements. Unlike ordinary egg custards, pudding cakes contain a little flour and beaten egg whites. During baking, the beaten egg whites will float to the top, forming a spongy, cake-like cap. Meanwhile, the remainder of the batter settles to the bottom to make a pudding-like layer.
RICE PUDDING: At its best, rice pudding is simple, lightly sweet, and tastes of its primary component: rice. Medium or long-grained rice works best. At its worst, the rice flavor is lost to cloying sweetness, condensed dairy, and a pasty, leaden consistency. By far the best results came from cooking the rice and water in a covered pot first, followed by simmering the cooked rice uncovered in the dairy mixture.
STEAMED PUDDING: A sweet or savory pudding that is cooked (usually in a special steamed-pudding mold) on a rack over boiling water in a covered pot. The pudding mold is usually decorative so that when the finished pudding (which is firm) Although steamed pudding can be cooked in a variety of containers, there are special steamed-pudding molds with decorative sides and bottom, as well as a lid that clamps tightly shut. Many molds also have a central tube (like an angel-food cake pan) that provides more even heat distribution, thereby cooking the pudding more evenly. When it is unmolded the pudding retains its decorative shape.
Steamed puddings can take up to 3 hours to cook on stovetop, half that time in a pressure cooker. They're customarily served with a sauce. The traditional Christmas plum pudding, for instance, is customarily accompanied with hard sauce.
SUMMER PUDDING: This classic English dessert consists of sweetened fresh berries and often red currants that are briefly cooked, then cooled before being placed in a bread-lined casserole dish. The fruit is topped with additional slices of bread, covered with a plate and weighted overnight in the refrigerator. The cold dessert is unmolded and served with whipped cream.
YORKSHIRE PUDDING: British roast beef wouldn't be complete without Yorkshire pudding, which is like a cross between a popover and a soufflé and not at all like a pudding. It's made with a batter of eggs, milk and flour, baked in beef drippings until puffy, crisp and golden brown. It may be prepared in a shallow baking dish, muffin tins or other small containers, or in the same pan as the roast. Like a hot soufflé, Yorkshire pudding will deflate shortly after it's removed from the oven. This specialty takes its name from England's northern county of Yorkshire.
By Region
ENGLISH PUDDINGS are popular desserts and side dishes. Saxon pudding, a steamed brown bread pudding, uses dark rye bread, chocolate, almonds and crystallized fruit. Yorkshire pudding, made from cooked beef drippings, commonly accompanies a Sunday lunch of roast beef, lamb or pork. It is served with gravy, mint sauce or applesauce. Plum pudding, seen at Christmas and New Year’s dinners, contains suet, raisins, currants, breadcrumbs, spices, fruit peels and nuts, and is served with brandy butter, topped with holly and set alight with rum.
MEDITERRANEAN cooks make sweet, rich rice puddings using whole or ground rice flavored with cinnamon stick, lemon peel, orange blossom, honey, pistachio, almonds or hazelnuts. Traditional examples include: Turkish fried semolina pudding, a pale brown, rich, soft pudding with pine nuts and vanilla; and Tunisian couscous pudding made from semolina, nuts, dates, rose water, seasonal fruits, pomegranate seeds and black raisins.
INDIAN sweet, rich, creamy puddings may be chilled or hot — cream, rice, tapioca, milk, vermicelli and carrot bases are flavored with ghee, nuts, rose petals, kewra essence, golden raisins and green cardamons. Halwa pudding contains grated carrots cooked in milk until tender, with ghee, cashews, golden raisins, sweetened condensed milk, cardamon and nutmeg. Milk-based payasams contain semolina, green split peas or vermicelli, flavored with spices and nuts and thickened with tapioca flour or almond paste.
SOUTHEAST ASIA PUDDINGS include: bubur pulot hitam, a sweet, chewy, sticky, black rice pudding from Malaysia; Cambodia’s corn pudding; Indonesia’s steamed green-colored coconut and egg pudding; Burma’s creamy sago pudding; and Philippines’ sweet fruit and yam pudding.
LATIN AMERICAN flan, a caramel pudding, varies regionally, and may include cinnamon, grated lemon rind and coconut, blanched almonds, cocoa or dark rum. Sweet, caramelized milk pudding, or dulce de leche, is made with simmered milk, sugar and vanilla and/or condensed milk. Mexican capirotada, a hot, baked bread pudding has repeated layers of toasted, cubed white bread, butter and a layer of sliced apples, almonds, raisins and coarsely chopped cheese, topped with piloncillo syrup (brown sugar) and spices.
CARIBBEAN PUDDINGS include: carrot with raisins, allspice and dark rum served warm with hot rum sauce; banana and breadfruit; chipolata made with cream, vanilla and candied fruit topped with maraschino cherries; and Christmas steamed pudding served with brandy butter or brandy sauce.
