Indian Pudding インディアンプディング

This is another of my wife’s baking projects. Although my wife is not PA Dutch, she grew up in rural Pennsylvania and is very fond of the PA Dutch dishes she ate as a child. As a result she has collected quite a few PA Dutch cookbooks. While she was browsing through the cookbooks, she found this recipe called “Indian Pudding”. ** This was one of her favorite childhood desserts and she had not tasted it in years, so she decided to make it. I found this to be a somewhat unusual dish—I had never tasted anything like it before. But it was a success and quite enjoyable as a dessert (#1). It has a nice but not too strong molasses flavor combined with a complexity of cinnamon, and ginger spices plus a burst of sweetness from the raisins. The consistency is like an extremely wet cake referred to as “pudding” consistency. While this was new to me I see why my wife likes it and now I do too. 

** Indian pudding originated with New England colonists in the 17th century, who adapted a traditional British "hasty pudding" to incorporate cornmeal, a staple crop learned from Native Americans. The name refers to the colonists' term "Indian meal" for cornmeal, not to the modern country of India. It became a quintessential American dessert, especially popular during the colonial era.

Ingredients:
(X1)
1/4 cup cornmeal 
1 cup milk, scalded 
1/2 tablespoon butter 
1/8 cup table molasses (1/16 molasses, 1/16 karo), 
1/3 cup raisins 
1 large egg, lightly beaten 
1 tablespoons granulated sugar 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger 
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1 cup milk 

(X2)
½ cup cornmeal
2 cups milk, scalded
1 tablespoon butter
¼ cup table molasses (golden, barrel, or King Syrup), do not use baking molasses
⅔ cup raisins
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300°F.

Stir cornmeal into hot milk with whisk, stirring until smooth. Add butter, molasses, raisins, egg, sugar, salt, ginger, and cinnamon. Blend thoroughly and let stand until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Pour into buttered 1-quart baking dish. Top with remaining cup(s) milk. Bake for 1 1/2 hours  (2 hours if double recipe) or until set. I used the small square corning bake dish. Serve warm.

We were not sure how the milk poured on top would work out. But as the picture we took while it was in the oven shows (#2) it eventually formed a crust topping which added another dimension of texture to the overall dish.

This is a picture of the final product (#3). Isn’t it a beaut?

This is a homey, hearty, savory dessert. It somehow evokes the image of a comfort food on a cold winter’s night. This was truely an old friend rediscovered for my wife and a new friend met for me.