Tag Archives: pudding

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

19 Feb

hot fudge pudding cake

You may be wondering why I don’t share recipes more often. There’s a simple explanation. This is a blog of my favorite recipes. I’ve been writing it for several years. Most days, there are just two of us for meals. Over the course of this blog’s life, I’ve used most of my actual favorite recipes. (If you’re new to the blog, go back and look at some of the older entries.) Most of my recent posts have not been old standbys but new recipes that I like a lot (and remember to photograph).

This one, however, is an oldie-but-goodie. We rarely make desserts except when we have company. Most of our company meals feature a chicken or meat main course; in our kosher home, that means no dairy desserts. So while I love this recipe, I don’t make it very often. (You can make it vegan, but I don’t think it would taste as good.)

The directions will probably sound odd. While the cake bakes, the top layer turns into a rich pudding that sinks to the bottom of the dish. When you serve it, invert each piece onto a serving plate and it will be topped by a yummy, fudge-y sauce. Serve it warm, even right out of the oven. It’s terrific with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:

1¼ cup flour
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup plus 2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa, divided
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup milk, soy milk or water
3 tbs. melted butter, margarine or vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla, divided
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir flour, sugar, 2 Tbs. cocoa, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl. Stir in the milk, melted butter or margarine and 1 tsp. vanilla and blend well. Pour into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan or a small casserole dish and spread evenly.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and ¼ cup cocoa; sprinkle the mixture over the cake batter. Combine the boiling water and 1 tsp. vanilla and pour over the top of the cocoa-brown sugar mixture. Do not stir!

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm topped with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Serves 6 to 8

 

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Gila’s Chocolate Cake

1 Mar

 

Gila's chocolate cakeParve or dairy

I got the recipe for this cake, which could be nicknamed “death by chocolate,” from Gila Semp. It’s very rich and moist, and it’s easy to make, especially with a stand mixer. And even though it’s based on boxed mixes, it tastes homemade.

Full disclosure: I made this cake for guests last weekend, but I neglected to take a photo! This one is by Emily Hill, via Flickr Creative Commons — and I like her addition of shredded coconut and sliced chopped nuts on top, though because this cake is so rich I often make it without the chocolate glaze, and just sprinkle with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar.

Ingredients:

1 box devil’s food or chocolate fudge cake mix
5 eggs
½ cup oil
1 cup water
1 package instant chocolate pudding mix (most are dairy, but you can find parve mixes in kosher food stores)
1 package (12 oz.) chocolate chips
1 package (6 oz.) chocolate chips, optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the cake mix, eggs, oil, water and pudding mix together with an electric mixer.

Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour into a greased bundt pan.

Bake 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Optional glaze:

Combine a 6-oz. package of chocolate chips with ¼ cup of boiling water. Stir to combine.

Add a little more boiling water if the glaze seems too thick. Drizzle over the top of the cooled cake.

Serves 12 or more

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Vanilla (or Chocolate) Pudding

31 Dec
Vanilla pudding

Vanilla pudding

My husband has decided he needs to lose weight. Whenever he does that, he stops eating cold cereal and eats oatmeal every morning for breakfast. But he never puts milk in it. And he keeps buying milk that expires about 10 days later. What to do with all that milk before it goes bad? I often turn a couple of cups into delicious home-made pudding.

It’s not much harder to make your own pudding “from scratch” than to buy a box  of pudding mix (filled with preservatives and other chemicals), and it’s undoubtedly cheaper.

When I make vanilla pudding, I like to add a drop of yellow food coloring at the end so the pudding doesn’t look so unappetizingly white. You can reduce the calorie count by using low-fat or fat-free milk and substituting Splenda for the sugar.

If you don’t have a large household to feed, you can easily halve this recipe to make four half-cup servings.

Chocolate pudding

Chocolate pudding

Ingredients:

½ cup sugar
5 Tbs. corn starch
¼ tsp. salt
4 cups milk
1½ tsp. vanilla

For chocolate pudding, increase sugar by ¼ cup and add ¼ cup cocoa

Directions:

Mix the sugar, corn starch, the cocoa if making chocolate pudding, and the salt in the top of a double boiler. Gradually add the milk, whisking until smooth. Place over simmering water and cook, stirring constantly (using a wire whisk works well), until the mixture thickens. Continue cooking 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and blend in the vanilla. Pour into serving dishes to cool. Chill before serving.

Serves 6 to 8

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Jerusalem Noodle Kugel

24 Jan

ImageA kugel is a pudding. A Jerusalem kugel uses caramelized sugar, which gives it a nice, deep, brown color, lots of oil, and lots of black pepper, which makes it both sweet and spicy. Most recipes call for cooking the noodles first, then caramelizing the sugar and pouring it over the noodles, then adding the eggs. I used to do it this way, but it was a little tricky, because when the caramelized sugar hit the noodles, it tended to form chunks and not coat the noodles evenly. This problem was solved when I found a Jerusalem kugel recipe in the New York Times. It’s a little time intensive, but it’s easier to get a good result.

You still have to be careful when caramelizing the sugar. If you let it go even 30 seconds too long, it will burn. And if you’ve never done it, you may not know what to expect. This is what happens when you mix the sugar with the oil and heat it: First the sugar will seem to dissolve, but much of the oil will remain separate. As the mixture continues to cook, it will seem to solidify as the oil is absorbed, and you’ll have clumps of moistened sugar. Keep stirring. Finally the sugar will start to melt and turn brown. Stir it constantly and watch it like a hawk. As soon as the color is golden brown, almost as dark as you want, pull it off the flame – I say “almost” because the hot syrup will continue to cook for short while.

I make it a little differently than the original New York Times recipe, which calls for 12 ounces of noodles (actually, they call for a mixture of angel hair pasta and fettucine), ½ cup oil, 1½  cup sugar and 4 eggs. The Times also suggests baking the kugel in a Bundt or tube pan. but I prefer an oblong pan.

This makes a very large kugel, enough to feed 12 or more. To make a smaller kugel, use 8 ounces of noodles, ⅓ cup oil, 1¼ tsp. salt, ½ tsp. black pepper, 1 cup sugar and 3 eggs, and bake in an 8-inch square pan.

Ingredients:

1¾ cups sugar
5 fluid oz. vegetable oil, plus a little more for greasing the pan
6 cups water
2½ tsp. salt
¾ to 1 tsp. ground black pepper
16 oz. package egg noodles
5 large eggs, well beaten

Directions:

Place 1 cup of sugar and the 5 fluid oz. of oil (between 1/2 cup and 3/4 cup) in a heavy 8-quart saucepan or Dutch oven. Stir constantly over medium heat until the sugar caramelizes, about 10 to 20 minutes. (See comments above for helpful hints.) Remove from heat and cool for about 15 minutes; the sugar will harden. (Be sure to take your wooden spoon or other stirring implement out of the pot before the mixture cools!)

Pour 6 cups of water into the pan with the sugar mixture and bring to the boil. The hardened sugar will slowly dissolve. Add the salt, pepper and remaining sugar. When the water boils, add the noodles. Cook until the water is almost completel absorbed/evaporated, stirring occasionally so that the noodles don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Remove from heat and cool slightly, stirring occasionally to release the heat.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

When the oven is ready, add the eggs to the noodles and stir well. Pour into a greased 9 x 13-inch pan. Bake for about an hour, until the top is nicely browned. Cut into squares to serve.

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