The traditional Indian pudding dates back to colonial New England. This lightly flavored baked pudding is made with cornmeal, milk, eggs, and molasses. It’s a perfect recipe for Thanksgiving or a delicious taste of the past.
My first exposure to Indian Pudding was over 30 years ago at Durgin Park, a landmark in Faneuil Hall, Boston, famous for its home-style Yankee fare and, back then, its quirky octogenarian waitresses.
Few desserts look so completely unappetizing and taste so incredibly good!
Why Indian pudding isn’t more well known I have no idea; It’s one of my favorite desserts of all time and a traditional New England Thanksgiving classic.
Indian pudding is a baked pudding made with milk, butter, molasses, eggs, spices, and cornmeal.
The name probably derives from cornmeal, which was known as Indian flour long ago.
Here’s a tried-and-true Indian pudding recipe, adapted from An Olde Concord Christmas, a long-out-of-print book from the Concord Museum.
What is Indian pudding?
This pudding has nothing to do with India. Nor is it a food that Native Americans (or Native Americans—the preferred term depends on the person you ask) prepared themselves. So what’s up with the name?
Native Americans introduced the early New England colonists to corn, and it became a valuable part of the colonists’ diet, not least because the wheat flour to which they were accustomed was hard to come by in New England at the time. The colonists adapted the British hasty pudding – a quick dish made with wheat flour, molasses and spices – to use cornmeal or “Indian flour” instead. A recipe appeared in Amelia Simmons American Cookery in 1796, but by then Indian pudding had been around for many decades.
From the editors of Simply Recipes
Indian pudding
ingredients
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6 cups milk
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1/2 Cup (1 double crochet) butter
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1/2 Cup yellow wheat flour
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1/4 Cup all purpose flour
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1 teaspoon Salt
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1/2 Cup molasses
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3 eggs, beaten
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1/3 Cup granulated sugar
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1 teaspoon Cinammon
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1 teaspoon nutmeg
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1 Cup golden raisins, Optional
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whipped cream or Vanilla Ice Cream
method
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Boil milk and butter:
Bring the milk and butter to a boil in a large water bath. Or, microwave the milk and butter over high heat for 5 or 6 minutes until boiling, then transfer to a saucepan on the stovetop. Keep hot over medium heat.
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Preheat the oven:
Preheat oven to 250°F.
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Start the cornmeal batter:
In a separate bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, and salt; Stir in molasses. Thin the mixture with about 1/2 cup of brewed milk, a few tablespoons at a time, then gradually add the mixture back to the large saucepan of brewed milk. Cook, stirring, until thickened.
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Temper the eggs, then add to the batter:
Temper the eggs by slowly adding 1/2 cup of the hot milk and cornmeal mixture to the beaten eggs, beating constantly. Add the egg mixture back in with the hot milk and cornmeal mixture, stirring to combine.
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Add sugar, spices, and raisins if using:
Stir in the sugar and spices until smooth. If the mixture is lumpy at this point, you can run it through a blender to smooth it out. Stir in the raisins (optional).
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Bake:
Pour into a 2 1/2 liter shallow casserole dish. Bake at 250°F for 2 hours.
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1 hour cooling:
Let the pudding cool for about an hour so that it tastes its best. It should be reheated to a warm temperature if it has been chilled.
Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Links:
It’s National Indian Pudding Day! Here’s why you should celebrate – a fun article on NPR, including another Indian pudding recipe
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 340 | calories |
| 17g | Fat |
| 40g | carbohydrates |
| 9g | protein |
