Real Butterscotch Pudding

Real Butterscotch Pudding

American Pudding, I have been longing to try one for a long time. It just sounds like a comforting and heal you when you’re ill, make you happy when your well kind of thing. Here in the UK I think Angel Delight or blamange pudding would be the nearest things we have to it. I’ve always wanted to give the real deal a go though. I have many versions marked in books, one in particular by Gale Gand (in Butter Sugar Flour Eggs) was especially alluring, but it was Dorie (Greenspan) who held my hand and got me to give pudding a go in the end. In her Baking From My Home To Yours, she has chocolate pudding, split level pudding (chocolate ganache on the bottom and vanilla pudding on top) and butterscotch pudding. I would like to give them all a go, but I’ve never been under any illusion that it was going to be anything but the Butterscotch one first. Caramel, toffee, butterscotch just the words are enough to spark my interest.

This pudding surprised me a little in that it actually has Whisky / Scotch in it! I sort of thought of it as a child’s pudding first and foremost. I guess the pudding has had lasting appeal for the then children and now adults, and Dorie has upped the ante and made it something great for grown ups too. I topped them with a little whipped cream and some buttered pecans, as suggested in the side bar on the recipe. I've always liked the sound of buttered pecans too, and I could hardly believe how simple they were, toast nuts in a pan, add a little butter and fry / toast some more - done.

My little one has had a bug for the past couple of days, so we are at home today. I thought ‘I cans make her pudding, and it will make her feel better!’ So we made Real Butterscotch Pudding. It makes 6 portions so when I was finishing making it I just added the vanilla and butter then poured little one’s 2 portions into dishes then blended in 2/3 of the amount of whisky to the mixture left to make the other 4. I would never manage to drink whisky, but in desserts and cakes (and savoury sauces) it’s transformed (or perhaps toned down a little) and the resulting puddings were beautiful. Hubby nearly had a fit when he came home and saw his 18 year old Glenlivit Whisky sitting on the kitchen counter, but was remarkably calmer when I assured him it was only 4 teaspoons I had used!

Toffee, vanilla, creaminess from the milk and butter, smoothness from the egg yolks and cornflour and of course the booze too. I made them to do two nights, and although little one has one left, sadly us adults have none – they were really good!