Warm pudding is perfect for a cold day!
Some people love the cold. For me, it is just awfully uncomfortable. Always has been. When I was really young, I had to stand for a long time at the bus stop to wait for the bus to take me to school. My mother was always at least 15 minutes early so my wait time would be pretty unbearable when it was cold outside. My Warm Indian Pudding with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream is the perfect cure for a cold day!
I find that the older you get, the more you try to hang onto the memories from days past. For me, memory is enmeshed in a (1) person (2) place or (3) thing. Sometimes it is one or more of those combined. This is ever so true when it comes to a food or a recipe because those things are so evocative of times gone by.
This got me thinking today in the throes of freezing cold weather about what sort of warm comfort foods my mother used to make 50 or more years ago. She may be gone, but her recipes and the memories of the foods she made definitely live on. They are triggered by events such as a very cold, blustery, snowy day.
Comfort food that everyone will enjoy!
One of the most comforting foods there is that nobody really thinks about anymore is a Warm Indian Pudding with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Warm, creamy, mushy (I mean, it IS cornmeal MUSH).
Ice cream is never a better consistency than when you first buy it at the store and bring it home. You know exactly what I mean. It is smooth and just barely soft. Yielding perfectly to the ice cream scoop. Fast forward after a day in the freezer and you practically throw out your arm trying to get a scoop out of the container.
TIP AND TRICK: I have a solution for that, especially when you are going to put ice cream on a warm dessert. Buy the ice cream and go ahead and scoop it out fresh from the store into individual balls and freeze them first on a cookie sheet and then in a closed container to keep them fresh until needed.
Now, this is not just ANY ice cream. This is Graeters Ice Cream made by a family in Cincinnati, Ohio BY HAND. Yes, hand made if you can believe it. This is the vanilla bean which has lots of specks of real vanilla distributed throughout but the chocolate chip flavors (mocha chip, mint chip, black cherry chip…and more)! I could jump up and down about this ice cream all day long. And you can even get it to show up at your door. You have to believe me–this is unbelievably good. Off the chart. And when it gets all melty on top of a hot Indian Pudding right out of the oven, or a cobbler, or a brownie…well then you will know what food love is!
Indian pudding
Warm, cozy cornmeal pudding flavored with molasses and holiday spices (cinnamon, ginger etc.) served with a vanilla bean ice cream is the ultimate comfort dessert
Ingredients
- 4 cups whole milk divided
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1/3 cup cold water
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
- 4 tablespoons butter +1 tablespoon to butter the baking dish
- 1 pint vanilla bean or salted caramel ice cream
Instructions
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Pour 3 cups of the milk into a very heavy sauce pan and bring just to a boil. In a one-cup measuring cup, whisk the cornmeal with the cold water and whisk until smooth.
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Once the milk comes to a boil whisk the cornmeal mixture in rapidly and simmer the mixture for 20 minutes, whisking frequently.
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Preheat the oven to 325° and butter a 1 1/2 quart casserole or soufflé dish with 1 tablespoon of butter.
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Combine the ginger, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt and sugar and whisk into the cornmeal mixture. Stir in the molasses and remove pan from the heat
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With a rubber spatula, scrape the cornmeal mixture into the buttered casserole dish. Cover the mixture with the remaining 1 cup of cold milk. Do not stir in the milk in.
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Dot the casserole with the butter. Place the baking dish into a 9"x13" pan to catch any overflow.
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Bake for two hours uncovered. Serve hot with a scoop of ice cream in a bowl and feel the chill disappear from you!