Caramel Pudding

Suppose some guests have suddenly come to your place and you have neither the special ingredients nor the time for making something for dessert. This is a very common situation we all might have come across. Here is a solution for this. Caramel Pudding is made of the simplest ingredients which you can always find in your fridge. And it can be made while you are chatting with friends. Yes, you don’t have to miss the “adda”. Yet, the result will be a mouth-watering one for everybody.

Preparation Time: NIL, Cooking Time: 20 minutes (plus 10-15 minutes to chill the pudding), Servings: 6-8.

Ingredients:

1. Milk – 500 ml
2. Egg- 3
3. Bread slices- 3
4. Sugar – 8-10 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp for caramelizing.
5. Vanilla essence- a few drops

Method:

1. Heat milk in a pan. Bring it to boil.
2. Add sugar and boil for a few minutes more. Don’t bother to reduce the volume much.
3. Turn off the heat. Let the milk to cool down to room temperature. If you are running short of time, keep the milk inside the refrigerator for a few minutes.
4. In the mean time, beat the eggs well.
5. Mix the eggs and the bread slices with the milk (remember not to mix the eggs into warm milk). Smash the bread slices using your fingers so that they are mixed with the milk well.
6. Add vanilla essence in the milk. If you don’t have vanilla essence, substitute it with cardamom powder. It works fine.
7. Take an aluminium / stainless steel bowl with large flat base. If the base is not large enough, the pudding will be thicker and will take more time to get steamed.
8. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of sugar over the base and heat it over the flame. When the sugar starts to melt, add 1 tsp of water. Water will help the caramelization quickly, without burning the sugar.
9. When the sugar turns brown, spread it all over the base of the bowl evenly.
10. Pour down the milk mixture in the bowl.
11. Add some water in the pressure pan in which your bowl can fit. Place the bowl inside the pressure pan and cover it with a lid.
12. Cover the pressure pan and put it on the gas on a medium flame.
13. After 10 minutes, your pudding is ready!
14. Chill the pudding in fridge for 10-15 minutes and then cut it into pieces. The bottom will be nice brown coloured due to the caramelization.  Serve the pudding placing this brown side up.

Note: If you don’t have a pressure pan, you can simply steam your pudding on kadai. In this case, you can use a covered tiffin box or place some weight on the lid of your bowl. This will prevent water to go into the bowl while steaming.