RECIPE: Salted Caramel Pudding


When I was younger, one of my favorite things was when my mom would take us to the grocery store for homemade pudding. My sister and I followed a routine, I'd get chocolate and she'd would get butterscotch. We never thought to try anything different. Using that as inspiration, I consider this recipe the next evolution. It caters to my "grown up" palette, and avoids producing a treat that is overly sweet. You'll need a full jar of our Fleur De Sel for this recipe but it makes a lot of pudding. A perfect dessert for entertaining your friends!

 INGREDIENTS:

Makes 8 large servings

Pudding:
3 cups whole milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup Crafted Confections Fleur De Sel Caramel Sauce, heated until thin consistency.
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Cookie Crumble:

1 cup chocolate cookies (I like to use Oreo's)
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt

Garnish:
Lightly sweetened whipped cream (1/2 cup whipping cream + 2 tbsp powdered sugar)
Crafted Confection's Fleur De Sel Caramel Sauce
Fleur De Sel Salt

PROCESS:

Cookie Crumble: 

1. Put cookies in a food processor, pulse until fine. If you don't have a food processor, just crush them up as finely as possible.
2. Pulse in salt.
3. Pulse in butter, until distributed evenly.

Salted Caramel Pudding:

1. In a medium sauce pan, heat up 2 1/2 cups of milk over medium heat.
2. While milk is heating up, in a separate bowl, combine yolks, sugar, corn starch, and 1/2 cup milk. Whisk until smooth. 
3. Once the milk in the sauce pan is hot, SLOWLY pour half of the milk into the egg/starch mix, while constantly whisking. You want to do this very slowly so the eggs won't start to cook. 
4. Once half is whisked in, whisk in the salted caramel sauce. Slowly whisk the caramel mix back into the sauce pan over medium heat. 
5. You will want to whisk this mixture constantly until it thickens up, and you see the first bubble (cooking off the starch taste). DO NOT WALK AWAY. Keep stirring, so you don't end up with scrambled eggs in your pudding.
6. Once you see the first bubble, take off heat and stir in vanilla, salt, and butter. 
7. Pour through a fine strainer into a metal bowl, discarding any overcooked bits. Put saran wrap over the pudding, touching the saran wrap to the pudding so a skin doesn't form.
8. Let cool/thicken for 4-5 hours in the fridge. 

Whipped Cream:

Whisk the cream until peaks start to form, add in powdered sugar and continue to whisk until stiff peaks form. Keep in fridge until ready to use.

SERVING:

1. I like to use clear glasses (stemless wine glasses work great!) to show off the layers. In each glass, put a couple scoops of cookie crumble at the bottom, gently pressing the crumble into the glass.
2. Next, layer with pudding. About 1/2 cup per glass. 
3. Next spoon some Crafted Confection's caramel sauce over the top. Microwave the sauce so it is easily spoonable.
4. Top with a scoop of whipped cream, cookie crumble, and a pinch of Fleur De Sel salt. 
5. Keep in fridge until serving. Best served day of assembly, but can be made the day before.

Tag us and show me your Salted Caramel Pudding creations! #CraftedConfections.