vanilla bourbon pudding
July 26, 2013 § 1 Comment
It is approximately one million degrees outside today, and naturally that seemed like the perfect environment in which to revive a baking blog. I thought I would be clever and make a stovetop dessert instead of turning the oven on, but it turns out: stoves are also hot. So, it’s pretty uncomfortable in my house right now, but it’s made up for by the fact that we have vanilla bourbon pudding.
This pudding is pretty quick to throw together, but does require a lot of whisking so it’s best to have either excellent upper arm strength or an uncomplaining sous-chef (I had the latter). The end result is creamy and very rich, and the splash of bourbon highlights the vanilla without being too boozy. It’s intended to be eaten at room temperature because it thickens when cold, but you can add an extra splash of milk if you’d like to eat it straight from the fridge. Given the continuing heat, that’s exactly what I plan to do.
Vanilla Bourbon Pudding – adapted from Martha Stewart
Yield: Serves 4-6.
Note: if you’d like to serve this cold, you may want to increase the milk to 2 2/3 cups as the pudding gets quite thick when refrigerated.
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1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 vanilla beans, halved lengthwise
4 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon bourbon (optional, or can increase to 2 tsp)
In medium bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and salt.
Pour milk into a medium saucepan; scrape in vanilla seeds, and add the pods. Stir together and cook over medium heat until tiny bubbles begin to form around edges of pot, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.
Gradually add the milk mixture to the flour mixture, whisking constantly. Transfer the milk-flour mixture back to the saucepan; cook over low heat, whisking constantly, 5 minutes.
Put egg yolks in a small bowl. Gradually add small amount of the hot milk-flour mixture, whisking constantly. Add yolk mixture back into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens, 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and discard pods. Add butter and whisk until melted. Pass pudding through a fine sieve into a medium bowl, forcing it through holes with a rubber spatula. Stir in bourbon. Let stand at room temperature until slightly cooled, about 30 minutes.
If refrigerating (see note above): spoon pudding into bowls and refrigerate. If you don’t like pudding skin, put a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding before refrigerating. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
one cake two cake 
Yum! welcome back! 🙂