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11/29/2017 11:01 PMI have two holiday parties on tap before Christmas, along with a holiday party for my book club. Because the Jewish calendar is always changing, I noted that the book club party, which is always on the second Tuesday of every month, is the first day of Hanukkah. Since I am the only Jewish person in that book club, and since we meet at Par Four in Groton, I decided I might make a dessert we could share in addition to the secret Santa presents.
This particular book club includes lots of women who used to be teachers, and have lived on the Connecticut shoreline much of their lives. I, on the other hand, am a native of upstate New York, although I have lived in Massachusetts and Connecticut for almost four decades.
That being the case, I decided I will make something that is truly, or almost truly, New England. I tasted Indian pudding when my brother was a student at MIT. The first time my parents and I, when I was 10 years old, visited him in Cambridge, we went to we went to Durgin Park in Boston. I have no idea why I ordered what I did, since I’d had neither dishes—chicken pot pie and Indian pudding—but I was enchanted. Many years later, when I began to love cooking, I made both. The best chicken pot pie recipe comes from the first Silver Palate cookbook. My favorite Indian pudding recipe is from Brooke Dojny’s The New England Cookbook.
If you would like the chicken pot pie recipe, email me at leeawhite@aol.com. Here is my favorite New England dessert.
A Delicate Indian Pudding
From The New England Cookbook by Brooke Dojny (Harvard Common Press, Boston, 1999)
Yield: 8 servings
¼ cup yellow cornmeal
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk, divided
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 eggs
½ cup molasses
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
½teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
⅓ cup raisins (optional)
Lightly sweetened softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
or frozen yogurt
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch square glass baking dish.
2. Whisk together cornmeal and salt in a medium saucepan. Whisk in 2 ½ cups of milk until smooth and bring to a boil, whisking almost constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture is thick and creamy, about 10 minutes. Add butter, whisking until it is melted; remove from heat.
3. Whisk eggs with molasses, sugars, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Gradually whisk the hot cornmeal mixture into the egg mixture. Stir in raisins (if using) and transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Pour remaining one-half cup of milk over the top of the pudding, but do not mix it in.
4. Place the dish in a large roasting pan and pour enough boiling water into the larger pan to come halfway up the sides of the pudding dish. Bake for about 1 ½ hours, or until pudding is just set.
5. Cool for at least 20 minutes or for up to 1 hour before serving warm or lukewarm, topped with whipped cream or ice cream. The pudding can be made up to 8 hours ahead, covered loosely with plastic wrap, and stored at cool room temperature. Reheat the covered pudding in the microwave before serving.