Pudding |

Christmas Trifle

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Kaitlin

Each year, my mom makes a beautiful trifle for Christmas. I’m pretty sure at one point, she was only making one, but as the popularity of her trifle grew, she is now up to making 6+ for different holiday events, friends, and family. My sister and I grew up begrudgingly helping my mom make these trifles but we both have grown to love them and look forward to a bite of trifle every December. A trifle is just a layered dessert that is usually made with cake pieces, cream, pudding, and fruit. My mom tops her with a beautiful design of fruit: kiwi, peaches and raspberries. I wanted to make some trifle to share with this blog but a normal trifle can serve a whole family, so I made a mini version! To prepare a regular trifle, the process is just the same. I highlighted Driscoll’s Berries in my trifle. I absolutely love their raspberries and blackberries so I wanted to have a higher ratio of berries in my trifle than may normally be used. Driscoll’s also sells really beautiful Strawberries and Blueberries that I have used in many many of my previous posts. Berries always add such … Continue reading →

Gingerbread Chocolate Pumpkin Trifle

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Kaitlin

Every Christmas, my mom makes an absolutely delicious trifle to give to neighbors and have for dessert on Christmas day. This trifle is so engrained in our winter holidays that I’m pretty sure we aren’t allowed to show up to my aunt and uncle’s house without the trifle in hand. I’ve always loved the simplicity of trifles and wanted to try out a version using my favorite ingredient: pumpkin! I was given the opportunity to enter a contest with nine other bloggers. The challenge is to use Walkers Shortbread products to make a new dessert, and luckily one of the categories was trifle! It was a sign! My mom’s trifle has custard, chocolate pudding, and rum-soaked pound cake slices with whipped cream and fruit on top. So I wanted to keep the general concept the same with my recipe. I am actually I decided to keep the chocolate pudding because, well, who doesn’t love chocolate pudding? A thought a pumpkin mousse would just be fantastic.I decided to make it a bourbon pumpkin mousse to add an extra layer of flavor. And of course instead of pound cake slices, I used Walkers’ Stem Ginger Biscuits and Pure Butter Shortbread.The … Continue reading →

English Blackberry Pudding

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Kaitlin

Recipes can tell you a lot about the time period in which they were written. I have always been interested in how recipes change over time to meet tastes, availability and personal income. A few months ago, I went to an event at the Historical Society of Philadelphia about a Civil War era cookbook they found within their documents. The cookbook, written by Ellen Emlenwas written around 1865 and is really well organized, especially for the time. Mrs. Emlen, a Philadelphia housewife, put a lot of time into the cookbook, organizing it into thirteen categories including over 200 recipes. Some of the fun facts that I learned: If you think Americans have a sugar problem now, you should see some of the amounts of sugar that used to go into recipes! Most recipes would have to be altered to include less sugar to make palatable to us today. Despite their not so wallet-friendly prices now, oysters used to be “poor man’s food” in nineteenth century Philadelphia. The Delaware River used to be teeming with them! Because of that, there are some ridiculous-sounding recipes for things like “how to pickle 1,000 oysters” It’s quite amazing how some things haven’t really changed. … Continue reading →

Chocolate-Mint Pudding

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Kaitlin

Chocolate Mint Pudding. Need I say more? This recipe is actually really easy, and it tastes amazing. I made a few changes to the original recipe depending on what I had on hand. Ingredients: 3 cups fat-free milk 1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves 2/3 cup sugar (I used turbinado sugar) 1/4 cup cornstarch 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 1/8 teaspoon salt 3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (use whatever is on hand) Heat milk over medium-high heat in a saute pan to 180 degrees or until tiny bubbles form around the edges. Make sure to not boil the milk. Awful pic, but see the bubbles? Prepare your mint by separating the leaves from the stems, enough to fill a 1/2 cup when packed. Remove the milk from heat and add the mint leaves. Let stand for 15 minutes. Strain the milk and leaves through a sieve into a bowl to reserve the milk. Discard all leaves. Pour milk back into the saute pan. Add sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, and salt. Heat over medium heat and bring to a boil. Stir constantly with a whisk so that it does not … Continue reading →

Barbuzzo’s Salted-Caramel Budino

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Kaitlin

Tasting Table posted an adapted recipe of Marcie Turney’s Salted-Caramel Budino. If you’ve never been to Barbuzzo, your taste buds are missing out on one fantastic dessert. So if my attempt at this adapted recipe is even half as good as the original, I will consider this a win. mmm. salty, caramely goodness Ingredients for Salted caramel: ¼ cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoons light corn syrup 3 tablespoons water ¼ cup heavy cream 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt, plus more for garnish ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract Ingredients for Pudding: 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (preferably grade B– I used grade A, oh well) ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed ¼ cup water 1 teaspoon kosher salt 2½ cups half-and-half 1 large egg plus 2 large egg yolks 3 tablespoons cornstarch Whipped cream, for serving To make the salted caramel: Using a saucepan, bring sugar, corn syrup, and water to a boil over high heat. Do not stir, swirl the mixture to allow it to caramelize evenly. When it turns a dark amber color, about 3 minutes, remove from heat. Add the cream, but be careful — the cream will make the caramel foam a bit. … Continue reading →