Scroll down for a second Indian Pudding recipe…This pudding is good enough for breakfast or a special dessert!

Indian Pudding #2

Indian Pudding

True to its name, this dish was a gift to New England settlers from Native Americans, a variation on their cornmeal mush. It was probably the most popular pudding in 18th-century America.

As Henry Bradshaw Fearon indicated, in our nation’s early decades pudding came at the beginning of the meal.  You may eat this one for dessert if you like, however! It looks pretty pathetic when it first comes out of the oven (like a not very appetizing mud pie). It looks a lot better with a spot of whipped cream and is satisfying to eat—warm and filling as pudding should be.

Like most puddings, it is adaptable; feel free to omit (or add to) the apples and to experiment with spices!

Ingredients:

5 cups milk

1/3 cup molasses

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons sweet butter

2 medium apples

Instructions:

Heat 4 cups of the milk in a saucepan and add the molasses, sugars, cornmeal, cinnamon, salt, and butter. Cook until the mixture thickens (between 10 and 20 minutes), stirring frequently.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Peel and core the apples; then slice them thinly onto the bottom of a 2- to 3-quart baking dish. Pour the cornmeal mixture into the dish on top of the apples. Pour the remaining milk on top, but do not stir it in.

Bake for 3 hours without stirring. Serve warm with cream, whipped cream, ice cream, or hard sauce. Serves 8