Monday, 16 August 2010

Biscuit Pudding



I love biscuit puddings of any kind. They are creamy, rich and one easy dessert that can be put together in no time. Here is one such pudding that I made couple of days back for an Iftar evening we had at our friend’s place. Everyone absolutely loved it and few even asked me for recipe. This is one of many recipes that I had bookmarked from nestle-family since last Ramadan. I have made some of their recipes in the past and all tasted just brilliant.

Here I have followed the recipe exactly except for some minor changes. The recipe uses crushed biscuits which I was a bit sceptical about. I am not a fan of crunchy biscuits in between the creamy pudding. If you like that crunchy bits, you may follow the recipe as it is. But if you are like me, and like soft pudding and a cake textured biscuit layer with a hint of coffee, you can dip the whole biscuits in strong black coffee concoction and use a double layer of biscuits instead of the crushed ones. If you don’t like the coffee flavour, you can dip them in milk too. The given amount makes a huge of batch of pudding which fills a 2 litre pudding dish/tray, and can be made a day or two ahead if you are making it for a party. It would be a real mob pleaser.


Ingredients:

1 tin NESTLÉ® Sweetened Condensed Milk or 397 g
½ cup butter or 100 g, melted (I used 3 Tablespoons)
1 tin NESTLÉ® Cream or 170 g (I used ½ cup thick double cream)
4cups water or 1000 ml
½ cup – ¾ cup caster sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon Lemon zest grated (I used 1 Tablespoon orange zest, grated)
¾ cup plain flour
150g tea biscuits , crushed with hand
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 - 4 tablespoons ground pistachio nuts
3 tablespoons desiccated coconut

Preparation:


1.Combine Condensed Milk , butter, Cream, water, sugar, eggs, vanilla and lemon/orange zest in a mixing bowl and mix until well combined; add flour to the mixture by batches and mix until the mixture smoothens and no lumps.

2. Pour the mixture in a large saucepan, whisk constantly over medium heat until it boils. Simmer for 5-8 minutes or until mixture thickens then remove from heat.

3. In a large baking dish; Pour around 4-5 ladles of the cream mixture. Sprinkle a thick layer of crushed biscuit and then sieve cocoa powder. Repeat another layer. Top with some cocoa powder, powdered pistachio and then dessicated coconut. The layers starts and end with cream mixture on top.

4. Place in a preheated oven at 180°C for 5-10 minutes until the coconut starts taking a golden colour. Remove from oven and let it cool to room temperature then place in fridge. Serve chilled.

Notes:

1. Make sure to keep stirring the pudding mixture constantly else the egg would scramble scramble and form lumps.

2. Instead of crushing biscuits, dip them in strong black coffee and layer them. This will give the sessert a divine coffee flavour.
This recipe also goes for the event Joy From Fasting to feasting hosted by Lubna of KitchenFlavours.