SWEET AND MILKY PUDDINGS FOR SPRINGTIME

 

Catalan custards with burnt-sugar topping.

Springtime brings wildflowers, rain showers, baby lambs, strawberries, and Lent.  It is the season for sweet and milky puddings. 

Traditionally, spring lambing season meant an abundance of milk (from cows and goats as well as sheep). During Cuaresma, the Lenten period of abstinence from foods such as meat, dairy foods were a stand-in. Here is a round-up of typical puddings that continue to be favorites during Lent, Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Easter. Or any spring day, rainy or bright.

Catalan Custard with Burnt-Sugar Topping (Crema Catalana, Crema de San José). Pictured above, these sweet and rich custards are typical for the festivities of Spanish Fathers' Day, San José, (March 19) as well as for Lenten meals. The recipe, with instructions for caramelizing the sugar topping, is here. 

Creamy Rice Pudding (Arroz con Leche) in the traditional style is made with milk (often goat's milk) infused with cinnamon and lemon peel. Other versions might be flavored with vanilla or rum; have cream or butter incorporated, or be sweetened with honey or molasses instead of sugar. Restaurant renditions often have a burnt-sugar topping, similar to the above custards. The recipe for old-fashioned Spanish arroz con leche is below. Here is another version Rice Pudding with Cherries and almonds.

Custard Pudding with Meringue (Natillas con Merengue). Natillas is a simple homemade pudding, typical in rural areas where fresh milk and eggs are plentiful. In La Mancha it is made with warmed sheep’s milk (Manchego cheese is a sheep’s milk cheese). The custard is poured over tortas, sponge cookies, somewhat like ladyfingers, then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. In Andalusia natillas is made with goat’s milk and served with crispy galletas, plain cookies. The pudding is especially good with fruit. It can be topped with baked meringue made with leftover egg whites. Get the recipe for Natillas here.

Honey with Fresh Cheese (Mel i Mató). So simple it is not really a pudding--a fresh, unsalted cream cheese, in Catalonia called mató, served with honey or fruit in syrup. The recipe for serving is here. 

"Burnt" Cheesecake (Quesada al Estilo de Cantábria). This is a cheesecake with no crust, more of a baked custard, made with soft, fresh cheese. Should you have a surplus of milk, you can easily make the cheese yourself. The recipes for both cheesecake and cheese making are here.

Mango Pudding with Fresh Cheese (Pudín de Mango con Cuajada). Cuajada is a sort of “custard” with no eggs. In Spain you can find cuajada in individual cups in the dairy section of grocery stores. Cuajo, an enzyme (rennet or junket), sets the custard. Cuajada is, basically, the first step in cheese making. But, instead of cutting the curds and draining off the whey, the thickened milk is poured into cups and allowed to cuajar, set. Serve it with honey, fruit and nuts, an old-fashioned traditional dessert especially in Euskadi (Basque Land). For this pudding the cuajada is mixed with fruit, sugar, and whipped cream. The recipe for the pudding is here.

Caramel Custards (Flan con Caramelo). Old-fashioned flan is as Spanish as sunshine! Baked in caramel-coated molds, the custards are easy to prepare and can be made in advance of serving. The basic recipe is here.

Dark Chocolate Cream Custards (Crema de Chocolate). Perhaps these rich custards are a bit too decadent for Lenten abstemiousness, but joyous feasting of Easter is near, when chocolate is very much on the menu. The recipe for Chocolate Custards is here.

Creamy Rice Pudding

Arroz con Leche

Serves 4-6.

6 cups whole milk

1 strip lemon peel

1 (2-inch) cinnamon stick

½ cup medium-grain rice

Pinch salt

1/3 cup sugar

Ground cinnamon, for dusting

Place the milk in a pan with the lemon peel and cinnamon stick. Bring just to a boil over high heat, then remove the pan from the heat and let the milk infuse 10 minutes. Strain the milk, discarding the cinnamon and peel.

Add the rice and salt to the milk. Heat over medium heat until the milk begins to barely bubble. Cook, stirring frequently, until the rice is very soft and the milk thickens, about 45 minutes. Add the sugar and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly so the sugar doesn’t scorch on the bottom.

Ladle the hot pudding into dessert cups or a pudding bowl. Allow the pudding to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving time. The pudding will thicken as it cools. Sprinkle generously with ground cinnamon before serving.

A HOLIDAY PUDDING FROM GALICIA

 

This bread pudding is chock full of fruits and nuts, a perfect holiday dessert.

Searching my favorite Galician cookbook (Cociña Galega by Álvaro Cunqueiro) for chestnut recipes (Galicia in northwest Spain is famed for its chestnut forests and dishes, both sweet and savory, with chestnuts), I came upon this recipe for a pudding with dried fruits and nuts. At first glance it seemed like bread pudding. At second reading, it rang the Christmas pudding bells. Now that I’ve made it, it seems almost as if you turned both the figgy Christmas pud and the brandy sauce into an eggy flan! 

Digging a little deeper (via Google) I found that the pudding, entitled mestura in the Cunqueiro book, meaning “mixture,” had several other names—vinchas, from vejiga (bladder); bandullos, meaning “belly,” and calleiras meaning “stomach” or “tripe.”  This seems to show that the pudding originally was stuffed into animal parts and steamed. In fact, one version, traditional during the winter hog butchering, has the bread crumbs soaked in pig’s blood rather than milk, making it not so different from English black pudding. 

The web site also mentioned a particular herb, nébola, that was incorporated in the pudding and also cooked with chestnuts. Which may or may not be Satureja Nepeta, related to the herbs summer and winter savory, or maybe it’s lesser calamint which possibly is the same as za’atar, the herb, not the blend. 

Not having a Galician avoa (abuela or grandma) to consult about the traditional kitchen, I used a pinch of summer savory (Satureja hortensis, ajedrea in Spanish). The herb has a fragrance reminiscent of thyme. It can be used in any recipe in which you might use thyme or sage—poultry, pork, stuffing, beans. I loved it in mushroom-barley soup and will definitely add it to the stuffing for the Christmas turkey. While savory—by its very name—may seem unusual in a dessert, I thought summer savory added a subtle forest counterpoint to the intense sweetness of figs and raisins. 

This dessert tastes as if you turned a Christmas pudding into a flan.

Serve the pudding with caramel syrup and whipped cream.

Galician Bread Pudding with Fruits and Nuts

Mestura Galega

You can substitute other dried fruits for the raisins and figs in this recipe. Try dried apricots, prunes, dates, cranberries. Málaga muscatel raisins are the sweetest, but must be seeded. Any seedless raisin could be used instead. Plump the dried fruits in sweet wine, brandy or aguardiente, anise liqueur.

Use day-old bread. Trim off any hard crusts as they will not soften when soaked in milk.

Bake the pudding in a baño maría, a water bath, so that it cooks evenly. Cool and then refrigerate it still in the baking pan before unmolding. The pudding keeps, refrigerated, up to a week. 

We enjoyed the pudding with caramel syrup and whipped cream. A traditional hard sauce or brandy butter would go nicely as well.

Bread, nuts, fruits, eggs, sugar, spices.

12 servings

4 cups diced day-old bread

4 cups whole milk

¾ cup seeded raisins 

1 cup chopped figs

3 tablespoons sweet wine, brandy or aguardiente

1/3 cup + 1 teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Grating of fresh nutmeg

Pinch of summer savory (optional)

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons melted butter

6 eggs, beaten

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or almonds

¼ cup pine nuts

Caramel syrup or molasses to serve (optional)

Whipped cream to serve (optional)

Place the bread in a bowl and pour over the milk. Mix well and let the bread soak 30 minutes until softened. Mash it slightly with a wooden spoon.

Place the raisins and figs in a small bowl and add the wine. Let the fruit plump until ready to add to the batter.

Savory, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon.

Stir 1/3 cup of sugar, the salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, savory, if using, and zest into the bread-milk mixture. Fold in the raisins and figs. Add the butter, then beat in the eggs. Stir in the walnuts and pine nuts, saving a few to stud the top of the pudding.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly butter a 6 to 8-cup loaf pan and line the bottom with baking parchment. Pour in the batter. Sprinkle the top with remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar and reserved pine nuts. Set the loaf pan in a larger pan and add boiling water to half its depth. Very carefully transfer to the oven.

Chill pudding before unmolding.

Bake the pudding until it is set when tested with a thin skewer, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove and cool the pudding on a rack. Do not unmold. When cool, cover the pudding with foil and refrigerate until chilled.

Loosen the sides of the pudding with a knife. Carefully unmold it onto a cutting board covered with baking parchment. Peel off parchment from the bottom of the pudding. Use a serrated knife to cut thick slices of the pudding. 

Serve accompanied by syrup and whipped cream, if desired. 

Use serrated knife to cut the pudding in thick slices.

More about the Galican herb néboda Hierbas Poco Conocidas.

BEYOND PUMPKIN PIE: HOLIDAY DESSERTS

I was expecting out-of-town guests for Thanksgiving dinner this year (November 28) and started planning a festive menu. But somehow I had missed one of their messages, the one that said “arriving December 27.” Not November. Luckily I had not yet bought a turkey, but I had gone through my recipe files in search of a holiday dessert. 

I found lots of possibilities, from pumpkin desserts to date-filled turnovers, creamy walnut pudding to almond nougat mousse. Should you be looking for a holiday dessert that’s not pumpkin pie, here are some suggestions with links to the recipes. 

Pumpkin Pie Adjacent 

Here are several desserts made with pumpkin or squash in totally different permutations and none with that ubiquitous pumpkin pie spice!

Pie with no pumpkin, but an alternative squash.

Galician Tart with Angel's Hair and Almonds (Tarta Mondoñeda). The filling is a confiture called cabello de angel, or angel's hair. It's made by cooking strands of a kind of gourd with lots of sugar. An almond cream is spread on top and encased in puff pastry dough. You can buy the angel's hair in cans. Or substitute a pumpkin jam or any fruity jam such as apricot. The recipe is here.

Pumpkin pudding studded with nuts.

Pumpkin Pudding (Arnadí). This pudding from València is a little like pumpkin pie without the crust. Dairy-free, the pudding is thickened with almond flour and egg yolks, spiced with cinnamon, ginger and orange zest. Get the recipe here.

Pastry squares with pumpkin filling.

Pastry Squares with Pumpkin Custard Filling (Miguelitos). Use frozen puff pastry dough and an easy to prepare custard filling of pumpkin scented with cardamom. You could serve the squares with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. See the recipe for Miguelitos.

Pumpkin doughnuts!

Pumpkin Puffs (Buñuelos de Calabaza). 

These doughnuts made with pureed squash would be nice for a Hanukkah party (first night of Hanukkah coincides with Christmas Eve this year) when it's traditional to eat fried foods. The yeast batter can be made in advance. The puffs—or doughnuts—are fried right before serving. Check out the recipe here.

Turnovers with pumpkin jam filling.

Turnovers with Pumpkin Jam Filling (Empanadillas con Calabaza).

Sort of like mini-pies, but these turnovers are not baked, they're fried. A very traditional Andalusian Christmas sweet, the filling can be made with "angel's hair" squash, pumpkin or sweet potato. The recipe for Fried Turnovers with Pumpkin Jam is here.

Holiday Puddings

Sweet potatoes for dessert!

Sweet Potato Flan (Flan de Batatas).

You could caramelize the flan molds, if desired, or just drizzle the flan with store-bought caramel syrup or, for a very traditional touch, miel de caña, molasses. This flan is made with eggs and cream cheese plus the mashed sweet potatoes. See two versions of the flan, one sweet and one savory, here., 

More festive holiday desserts with sweet potatoes: Sweet Potato Compote and Sweet Potato Parfait.

Almond Nougat Mousse (Mousse de Turrón).

Turrón—almond nougat candy—is essential at the Spanish Christmas table. Here it is whipped into a rich and foamy mousse and finished with grated chocolate. This dessert can be made days in advance of a dinner party. See the recipe here.

Creamy walnut pudding with chocolate.

Walnut Cream with Chocolate Sauce (Intxaursaltsa)

This is a fancy version of a very old-fashioned holiday pudding from the Basque country. It's easy to make—walnuts cooked in milk with sugar and cinnamon, then pureed. Chocolate and whipped cream turn it into a luxurious dessert. The recipe is here.

Prune-Sherry Ice Cream with Burnt Sugar Sauce (Helado de Ciruelas Pasas al Vino Jerez con Salsa de Caramelo).

This is a frozen pudding, another dessert that can be made well in advance of holiday dinners. A creamy burnt sugar sauce makes it very sophisticated. The recipe is here.

Cakes and Bars with Nuts and Dry Fruits

Dried apricots and almond bars.

Apricot-Almond Bars (Pan de Orejones y Almendras) 

This sweet is traditionally made with dried figs ground to a paste and mixed with almonds and sesame. The confection can be made with any dried fruit—apricots, figs, raisins, prune or a mixture of fruits. It typically contains a shot of anise-flavored liquor, aguardiente or anis seco. You can omit it or substitute a sweet wine such as PX or Málaga moscatel. 

This version with apricots contains flour to keep the mixture crumbly. It is finished in the oven to cook the flour.

Chewy date and nut bars made with olive oil.

Date Bars (Barritas con Dátiles)

When I was growing up, dates were a holiday treat when my mother made Date Bars, chewy squares, chock full of nuts and sweet dates. Her recipe called for butter and a cup of sugar. This version uses olive oil and no sugar. Here's the recipe for Date Bars and more about the Spain-Morocco date connection.

Fruity fig blondies.

Fig Brownies (Brownies con Higos sin Chocolate)

Like the date bars, these "brownies" (actually "blondies" as they have no chocolate) are chewy with nuts and dried fruit. They are made with olive oil instead of butter. Get the recipe here.

Bite-size pies with figs.

Fig and Date Turnovers (Empanadillas de Higos y Dátiles).

These fruit-filled turnovers will remind you of mince pies and fig newtons! The filling ingredients can be changed for raisins, prunes or dried apricots. See the recipe for a secret to making the pastry for the turnovers.

No-sugar cake with apples and raisins.

Apple Cake with Honey-Wine Syrup (Bizcocho de Manzana con Sirope de Miel y Vino Dulce).

This cake is sweet with no sugar, dairy-free and made with olive oil instead of butter. For guests who want more sweetness there is a separate pouring sauce of honey and fragrant sweet wine.