Popularly known as one of the most comforting foods, puddings are perfect for times when all you crave is a dessert. The word comes from the Latin word ‘botellus’, which means ‘sausage’. The French ‘boudin’ happens to have the same origins. While pudding comes in a variety of flavors, most people prefer the sweet ones that melt in the mouth like butter. To top things off, it is surprisingly easy to make at home.
That’s right, with the ingredients and method, you can easily bake the good old pudding at home. While the procedure is simple, possibilities are endless when it comes to pudding. From fresh fruits to chocolate, there are many types you can whip up. Drooling yet?
Without further ado, here are delicious pudding varieties to eat:
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 a hard sauce. Steamed puddings are made by mixing the ingredients and then pouring them into a tightly covered mold. It then goes into a water bath 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.
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. Some recipes cook the rice and water in a covered pot first, followed by simmering the cooked rice uncovered in the dairy mixture. Others have you bake the recipe.
Saxon Pudding: An English steamed brown bread pudding, that 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
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 on a stovetop, taking hours to cook. 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. They’re customarily served with a 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 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.
Mousse: It is the modern-day version of pudding, with a smooth and creamy texture. Originally, the word mousse came from the French term meaning “foam” or “froth”. It is a rich, airy dish that can be either sweet or savory and hot or cold. Cold dessert mousses are usually made with fruit puree or a flavoring such as chocolate or lemon. A mousse is similar to a Bavarian crème, which is a custard or chiffon, in that it is light and airy due to the addition of whipped egg whites, whipped cream, or both. They are usually fortified with gelatin (not as much in chocolate mousse recipes) because they are generally softer than the Bavarian or chiffon. Mousses tend to be too soft to mold into a semi-rigid form, i.e. a gelatin dessert, so they are usually piped into the final dessert presentation and garnished with additional whipped cream just before serving.