Butterscotch Pudding

I recently strictly out of laziness and a desire for butterscotch pudding purchased some Handi Snacks Jello snack cups, because I remembered them as being delicious as a kid. After a hopeful peeling back of the nostalgic yellow and blue lid, one spoonful left me chock full of regret, and the taste of dollar store rubber bands in my mouth for hours. 

People roll their eyes at me sometimes when I get food snobbish, but when you cook almost everything yourself and buy lots of organic stuff, you can taste chemicals, and it's disturbing. I once had a lovely little rat pet named Thelonious Rat, and I did an experiment (a KIND one, don't worry!) where I fed him organic rice and bananas for 2 months as snacks. They say rats have the sense of smell that's something akin to a blood hound, mind you, and this little guy would NOT touch the plain rice or bananas when I tried to give them to him. He actually buried them in his hypoallergenic bedding. The point is, he didn't even think they were food, but treated them like toxic waste. 

As I tossed out my "Handi Snacks" I remembered my little rattykins, and wondered why I didn't just make some darn pudding in the first place. 

Butterscotch Pudding

4-6 servings

-4 tablespoons  butter, salted 
-1 cup packed dark brown 
-3/4 teaspoon  salt

-3 tablespoons cornstarch

-2½  cups whole milk

-2 large eggs

-2 teaspoons whiskey

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the dark brown sugar and salt, then stir until the sugar moistened. Remove from heat.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch with about 1/4 cup  of the milk until smooth (there should be no chunks of cornstarch), then whisk in the eggs.

3. Gradually pour the remaining milk into the melted brown sugar, whisking constantly, then whisk in the cornstarch mixture .

4. Return the pan to the heat and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking frequently. Once it begins to bubble, reduce the heat to a low simmer and continue to cook for one minute, whisking non-stop, until the pudding thickens to the consistency of hot fudge sauce.

5. Remove from heat and stir in the whiskey and vanilla. If slightly-curdled looking, blend as indicated above.

6. Pour into 4-6 serving glasses or custard cups and chill thoroughly, at least four hours, before serving.

Whipped Cream
-1 cup heavy cream
-1 t. vanilla
-1 T. powdered sugar
Directions: Whisk on high with electric beater until combined to consistency desired for whipped cream.

Eat your heart out "Handi-Snacks".  Gorgeous caramel colored pudding with a silken texture. I love making this as a dessert for a fall dinner party, because you can serve small portions of it for a sweet afterthought to a hearty meal.

This pudding is awesome, and it also gives you an excuse to buy whiskey and whip some cream up to top it off. I also think it helps if you sip on a bit of it while you make this recipe, if you're into that kind of thing.

Once I answered a special order call at the bakery for a woman who wanted some banana pudding in a cake and I told her I could make that, no problemo. She was absolutely confounded, asking "You can make pudding? How on earth do you do that?" I just pictured what this woman must think  about the origin of pudding. Does she think it grows in the boxes in shrubs? Does she think it hangs from trees in  Handi Snacks plastic serving cups? Is it a strange root vegetable that you milk to produce pudding?  I was just as confused as she was, to be sure.