Indian pudding

10 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
3 cups Milk
1 cup Heavy (whipping) cream
½ cup Yellow cornmeal
½ cup (lightly packed) light brown sugar
½ cup Molasses
1 teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon Ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon Ground cloves
¼ teaspoon Ground ginger
4 Lrg eggs
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

Directions

The Puritan women learned how to make this dark, spicy dessert from the Indians, and it has remained a New England favorite ever since, probably because it warms the cockles and sticks to the bones during those long winters.

Serve it warm with vanilla ice cream or heavy cream spooned over the top.

Makes 10 servings.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees (F). Lightly grease a 6- or 8-cup souffle' dish with butter.

Scald the milk in a medium-size saucepan over medium-low heat.

While the milk is heating, pour the cream into a medium- sized bowl and stir in the cornmeal, sugar, molasses, salt, and spices.

Add the cornmeal mixture to the scalded milk and cook, whisking constantly over medium-low heat until the pudding has thickened to the consistency of syrup, about 5 minutes. Remove it from the heat.

Beat the eggs in a small bowl with a whisk. Add ½ cup of the hot cornmeal mixture to the eggs while whisking rapidly. Then vigorously whisk the egg mixture into the remaining cornmeal mixture. Add the butter and stir until it melts. Pour the pudding into the prepared baking dish, and place the dish in a shallow baking pan on the center oven rack. Pour enough hot water into the larger pan to come two-thirds of the way up the sides of the pudding baking dish.

Bake the pudding until it is set and a tester inserted close to but not in the center comes out clean, about 1-¼ hours.

Remove the pudding from the water bath and cool slightly.

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