Indian Pudding Day

Today is the national holiday to celebrate Indian Pudding. If you are not sure what Indian Pudding is you are not alone. The Nibble describes Indian Pudding as

What’s Indian pudding? It’s a baked pudding served hot or warm, made of cornmeal, milk, molasses and spices. It’s a richer, sweetened form of hasty pudding, a porridge of cornmeal cooked in milk or water. (Remember the song, Yankee Doodle: “Father and I went down to camp/Along with Captain Gooding/And there we saw the men and boys/as thick as hasty pudding.”)
The name Indian Pudding doesn’t imply that it’s a Native American (or Pacific Rim) recipe. The Plymouth Colony emigrants were accustomed to warm plum puddings, bread puddings and the like. But flour was scarce—no wheat grew in New England. However, corn grew; the native Wampanoags had plenty of cornmealSo “Indian” pudding was born, using cornmeal plus butter, eggs, milk, molasses and spices such as as cinnamon and ginger. The pudding was topped with heavy cream. None of these were Native American ingredients. The word “Indian” referred to the corn—hence Indian pudding, Indian bread (cornbread) and so forth.

2-½ tablespoons unsalted butter


3 cups milk

5 tablespoons yellow cornmeal

1/3 cup molasses

1/3 cup maple syrup

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

1 cup cold milk

2 pints premium vanilla ice cream,

whipped cream or light cream (half and half) for topping

Preheat oven to 300°F. Grease a 1-½ quart soufflé mold or baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the butter; set aside. Heat 3 cups of milk in a saucepan until it is close to boiling. Add the cornmeal and reduce heat to low. Stir until the mixture thickens (about 5 minutes). Remove from the heat and add the remaining butter, the molasses, maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger, salt and egg. Pour into buttered dish.
Place in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. Pour the cold milk over the pudding and return to the oven. Cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes until the top is brown and crisp. Serve hot or warm with topping of choice.

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