pudding — Wheat and Honey

Strawberry & Pear Flan

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 16:54:39 +0000

2 cups pears, chopped, with core removed 1 cup strawberries, chopped with leaves removed 2 Tbsp butter ¼ cup cream ¼ cup sour cream or plain yogurt 4 eggs ½ tsp salt ½ tsp ground allspice ½ tsp ground ginger 2 Tbsp honey

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Grease the bottom and sides of a large pie tin with 2 Tbsp soft butter.

Cook the pears in enough water to cover, over medium heat, until they are soft enough to easily pierce with a fork. Strain the fruit and put in a blender with all the other ingredients. Blend the ingredients very thoroughly, so that it is completely smooth.

Pour it into the pie tin. Bake for 60 minutes. Chill before serving.

#allspice #butter #cream #dessert #egg #ginger #glutenfree #honey #pear #pie #pudding #salt #sourcream #strawberry #vegetarian #yogurt

Classic Bread Pudding

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 00:22:05 +0000

4 cups dry bread, cubed small 1 cup fruit, fresh or dried, in small pieces ½ cup chopped nuts 2 ½ cups milk, cream, half & half, or a combination 3 eggs 1/3 cup sugar or brown sugar ½ tsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp ground nutmeg 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Grease a 9”×13” baking pan. Put the fruit in an even layer in the dish, then the bread cubes, then sprinkle the nuts evenly over it.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Heat the milk until just before the boiling point. Allow to cool slightly.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Whisking constantly, slowly pour the warm milk into the egg mixture. Then pour it evenly over the bread in the baking pan.

Baked 25-30 minutes, until puffed and a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean. Allow to repose for another 5 minutes.

#bread #brownsugar #cinnamon #cream #dessert #driedfruit #egg #fruit #halfandhalf #milk #nutmeg #nuts #pudding #sugar #vanilla #vegetarian

Plum Apple Pudding

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 21:42:23 +0000

2 ½ cups plain bread crumbs* ¼ cup brown sugar 4 Tbsp butter 1 lb apples ½ lb plums 1 tsp ground ginger 3 Tbsp honey 1 cup whipping cream 2 Tbsp brown sugar

Cut the butter into smaller pieces. Place breadcrumbs, butter and ¼ cup brown sugar in a non-stick pan on low heat. Cook gently while constantly stirring until the butter has all melted and it’s dark golden. Transfer into a bowl and set aside.

Core and slice the apples. Combine the apples and honey. Cook, covered, over medium heat until the apples are soft enough to easily poke through with a knife, but before they get mushy. Add the ginger. Mash the apples, or put them in a food processor on a low setting, until it is have pureed and half chunks of apple. Basically make a chunky applesauce.

Pit the plums and cut into fourths. Mash/process them in the same way.

Divide each of those ingredients into thirds.

In a glass dish, layer the ingredients. Starting at bottom: apples, plums, crumbs. Repeat to have 3 sets of layers.

Chill in the fridge until cool, even overnight.

Before serving, whip the cream with the 2 Tbsp brown sugar, and spread that over the top. Garnish with plum jam, if available.

*I made bread crumbs with a mixture of whole wheat bread and white potato bread. Basically any plain bread, biscuits, rolls, etc. will work. The easiest way to make bread crumbs is to tear up pieces of bread and process in a blender/food processor until it is all crumbs.

#apple #breadcrumbs #brownsugar #butter #cake #cream #dessert #ginger #honey #plum #pudding #vegetarian

Sweetmeadow Custard with Honey-Glazed Pears

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 19:11:20 +0000

Custard: 3 ¾ cups milk ½ tsp salt 1 tiny pinch lavender buds ¼ tsp dried mint leaves 1/8 tsp dried chamomile flowers 1/3 cup honey ¼ cup + 1 tsp cornstarch 3 egg yolks 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract 1 ½ Tbsp butter

Combine 3 cups milk, salt, and honey in a saucepan over med-high heat. Grind the lavender, mint, and chamomile into powder and stir into the milk.

In a separate bowl, whisk the cornstarch into the remaining milk. Add egg yolks and mix well.

When milk comes to a boil, remove from heat and stir in the cornstarch mixture. Keep stirring as the mixture begins to thicken. Return to heat and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. It will continue to thicken as it cools.

Pears: 2 pears 1/3 cup honey ½ tsp ground ginger ½ tsp pure vanilla extract

Arrange an oven rack about 5 inches from the broiler and heat the broiler on high. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

Cut the pears in half lengthwise and scoop out the core and seeds. Arrange the pear halves, cut side up, on the prepared baking sheet.

In a small bowl, stir the honey, ginger, and vanilla. Spoon evenly into each pear half.

Broil the pears, rotating the pan once, until bubbling and caramelized, about 5 minutes.

#butter #chamomile #cornstarch #dessert #eggyolk #ginger #glutenfree #honey #lavender #milk #mint #pear #pudding #salt #vanilla #vegetarian

Apple & Blackcurrant Flan

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 18:26:54 +0000

½ cup blackcurrant jam 1-2 Tbsp butter 2 ½ cups apples, chopped into 1” pieces 4 eggs ½ cup half-and-half ½ tsp ground cloves ½ tsp cinnamon 1 Tbsp maple syrup

Preheat oven to 325 ° F.

Butter a pie tin and spread the blackcurrant jam over the bottom.

Boil apple pieces in water until soft. Drain apples, and puree with the half-and-half, making it as smooth as possible. Beat the pureed mixture with the eggs, maple syrup, and spices. Pour into the pie tin over the jam.

Bake for 45-60 minutes, until the custard is set and a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool before serving.

#apple #butter #cinnamon #clove #currant #dessert #egg #glutenfree #halfandhalf #jam #maplesyrup #pudding #vegetarian

Apothermum

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 17:45:42 +0000

This is an ancient Roman dish.

Makes 2 servings.

½ cup farina (if you can't find plain farina, use unflavored cream of wheat or malt-o-meal) 1 cup water 1 Tbsp pine nuts 2 Tbsp blanched almonds 2 Tbsp raisins ¼ cup prune juice or grape juice dates figs extra nuts of desired variety

Simmer the juice over low heat until it is reduced to half. Set aside.

Over low heat, whisk together the farina and water. Add the pine nuts and almonds. Cook, stirring, until it reaches desired thickness. (I like it really thick and solid, some want it thinner.)

Stir the raisins and juice into the farina.

Mince the dates and figs, and crush the nuts. Serve in bowls with the fruit and nuts on top.

I got together with a friend to do some experimental Roman cooking.

The recipe we used interpreted apothermum as a pudding. I found a second recipe that considers it a sauce for meat. However, in the original text, apothermum is in the minced dishes chapter, not the sauce chapter. The two different translations are interesting. One recipe comes up with forcemeats, the other says nuts and fruit. (Latin is weird because isn't it all, “We're pretty sure this word means this” because there are no original speakers?)

Here are the recipes:

Pudding recipe

Spelt or Farina Pudding Apothermum

Boil spelt with Tor. pignolia nuts and peeled almonds1 [G.‑V. and] immersed in boiling water and washed with white clay so that they appear perfectly white, add raisins, flavor with condensed wine or raisin wine and serve it in a round dish with crushed2 nuts, fruit, bread or cake crumbs sprinkled over it.3
1 V. We peel almonds in the same manner; the white clay treatment is new to us.
G.‑V.: and — which is confusing.
2 The original: confractum — crushed, but what? G.‑V. pepper, for which there is neither authority nor reason. A wine sauce would go well with it or crushed fruit. List. and Goll. Breadcrumbs.
3 This is a perfectly good pudding — one of the very few desserts in Apicius. With a little sweetening (supplied probably by the condensed wine) and some grated lemon for flavor it is quite acceptable as a dessert.

For clarification, the blue text in the first recipe are extrapolations added to the recipe by the translator. The footnotes are also by the translator, and some refer to the text of a different translation.

Sauce recipe
To make Apothermum: Boil spelt with small nuts and blanched almonds. The almonds should previously been have been soaked in water with the chalk used as polish, so that they are perfectly white. To this add raisins and defritum or raisin wine. Sprinkle with ground pepper and serve in a bowl [with prepared forcemeats].

Latin text:
10. Apothermum sic facies: alicam elixa nucleis et amygdalis depilatis et in aqua infusis et lotis ex creta argentaria, ut ad candorem pariter perducantur. cui ammiscebis uvam passam, caroenum vel passum, desuper ‹piper› confractum asparges et in boletari inferes.

As you see, the first recipe says that it's spelt or farina. Not sure where they're getting the farina bit, but, in my opinion, that would provide a way better texture than the boiled spelt berries that we tried the first time.

I looked up raisin wine to determine exactly what I needed to try for (because I don't use alcohol), and it's a sweet dessert wine. Defritum is a sweet syrup made by reducing grape juice (hence the translation into “condensed wine”).

I like that the second recipe says small nuts, which may not need to be pine nuts. Is “small nuts” the actual ancient Roman name for pine nuts? The translator for the first recipe seems obsessed with pine nuts because he specifies them pretty much anytime nuts are mentioned.

The nuts, fruit, bread or cake crumbs bit from the first recipe is hypothesized by the translator; so apparently no one really knows what the crushed stuff is that goes on the dish. I like the nuts/fruit idea.

I liked it. It is like eating fancied-up cream of wheat, which is basically exactly what it is.

#almond #breakfast #dairyfree #date #farina #fig #fruitjuice #grapejuice #historical #nuts #pinenut #prunejuice #pudding #raisin #vegan

Cherry Soup

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 05:04:59 +0000

1 lb cherries, any variety, pits and stems removed 2 Tbsp apple juice, as desired for sweetness ¼ tsp ground cinnamon A pinch of ground cloves 1 cup milk or nut milk

If using canned cherries, drain out and discard the syrup. If using fresh cherries and juice comes out from pitting them, use the juice!

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Be sure to blend it thoroughly. Strain the skins out if necessary.

#applejuice #cherry #cinnamon #clove #dairyfree #dessert #glutenfree #milk #nutmilk #pudding #vegan #vegetarian

Apple & Pear Cream Pudding

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 01:06:51 +0000

¼ cup corn starch ¼ cup chopped raw nuts 2 cups milk, cream, buttermilk, or nut milk 1 ½ cups chopped apples 1 ½ cups chopped pear ¼ c honey ½ tsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp ginger pinch of ground cloves pinch of salt pinch of nutmeg

Mix the corn starch, nuts, milk, apples, pears, and honey in saucepan and bring slowly to a simmer. Cook, stirring for 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Can be served warm or chilled.

#apple #buttermilk #cinnamon #cloves #cornstarch #cream #dairyfree #dessert #ginger #glutenfree #honey #milk #nutmeg #nutmilk #nuts #pear #pudding #salt #vegetarian

Dark Chocolate Pudding

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 21:25:06 +0000

3 cups milk 2/3 cup sugar ¼ cup cornstarch 3 egg yolks 3 Tbsp unsweetened dark cocoa 1/8 tsp salt ½ tsp vanilla extract ½ cup dark chocolate chips

Put 2 ½ cups milk, the cocoa, and the salt in a saucepan over med-high heat. Sprinkle sugar on the milk, without stirring.

In a separate bowl, whisk the cornstarch into the remaining milk. Add egg yolks and beat well.

Right when milk comes to a boil, remove from heat and stir in the cornstarch mixture. Keep stirring as the mixture begins to thicken. Return to heat and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly as it thickens. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips and vanilla. Serve warm.

#chocolatechip #cocoa #cornstarch #dessert #eggyolk #glutenfree #milk #pudding #salt #sugar #vanilla #vegetarian

Vanilla Pudding

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 21:19:03 +0000

3 ¾ cups milk ½ tsp salt ¾ cup sugar ¼ cup + 1 tsp cornstarch 3 egg yolks 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract 1 ½ Tbsp butter

Put 3 cups milk and the salt in a saucepan over med-high heat. Sprinkle sugar on the milk, without stirring.

In a separate bowl, whisk the cornstarch into the remaining milk. Add egg yolks and mix well.

When milk comes to steaming, right before a boil, remove from heat and stir in the cornstarch mixture. Keep stirring as the mixture begins to thicken. Return to heat and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. It will continue to thicken as it cools. Serve warm.

Makes 6 servings.

For variations, replace ½ tsp of vanilla extract with another extract, like orange or lemon.

Serve alone, or with fruit or cake.

#butter #cornstarch #dessert #eggyolk #glutenfree #milk #pudding #salt #sugar #vanilla #vegetarian