Vanilla Pudding

This was not what I originally intended to make.

Oops.

I was going to make a fruit napoleon and found out that an ingredient for that was vanilla pudding. As the pudding can stand alone, I decided to separate the pudding front the napoleon (but don't worry that will be coming soon).

If you are like Billy, then when you think of pudding, you think of the Snack Pack. And just for your amusement let me throw in a couple more clips here and here. I am not much of a pudding fan but I have to admit, homemade pudding is much better than a Snack Pack.

This recipe takes some time to finish, but only because the pudding has to set in the fridge, so be prepared before starting out, otherwise enjoy!

Process

I was quite surprised at how easy this was to make. I never have made pudding before so this recipe came straight from my handy-dandy America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. I will just say a few comments about America's Test Kitchen. The people over there are super helpful, have some good recipes and do one thing that I find to be the most helpful - substitutions. Most of their recipes list other ingredients that you can use in lieu of the intended components. This is tremendously helpful when you are missing certain things or just experimenting.

Back to the pudding. Combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan. Whisk the half and half first, then the egg yolks. Make sure you use egg yolks as the whites wont set properly when on the stove. A neat trick to separate egg whites from the yolks is as follows: 1) crack the egg and split into two halves 2) transfer the yolk back and forth between the shells. When you do this, the whites will drip out (into a cleverly placed bowl below) leaving the yolk in the shell. 

Heat the mixture to a simmer over high heat, continuing to whisk. Make sure you keep the mixture from burning by scraping the sides of the saucepan. Reduce the heat and cook the pudding until it is thick. I made the mistake of removing it from the heat too soon and the final product was runny. While it still tasted great, I would have preferred it to be a little thicker.

The next part is optional if you have a fine-mesh strainer. Pour the hot pudding into a bowl through a strainer. This will remove bits of egg and make the pudding smooth. Add in your butter and vanilla and mix thoroughly.  Cover the pudding with plastic wrap and place into the refrigerator. Make sure the plastic wrap touches the surface of the pudding to avoid a skin from forming. The pudding will take three hours to set.

Afterwards you can enjoy by itself or use it in a whip cream (as I will have in a later post).

Vanilla Pudding

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar, granulated
2 T cornstarch
pinch of Kosher salt
3 1/2 cups half-and-half
3 egg yolks
1 T butter, unsalted
1 T vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan. Slowly whisk in the half-and-half, then add in the egg yolks.
2. Bring the mixture to a simmer over high heat, continuing to whisk. Keep the mixture from burning by scraping the sides/bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat and cook the pudding until thick.
3. Strain the pudding through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl. Mix in the butter and vanilla extract until well mixed. 
4. Place into the refrigerator until set, about 3 hours. Cover the pudding with plastic wrap and make sure it is touching the surface to prevent a skin from forming.