Caramel Tapioca Pudding

Tapioca pudding is one of those old fashioned foods that I LOVE. Gimme your prunes, bran muffins, pineapple upside down cakes with neon maraschino cherries, jello I love them all. I think one of the first things I ever “cooked” was jello instant pudding. I loved the magic that happened when milk and powder was whisked together and chilled. Magic. While instant jello pudding still has it’s appeal, homemade pudding is almost as easy. All you need is a bit of milk, sugar, thickener, and flavorings. This version is a bit grown up, thanks to the extra step of caramelizing the sugar before adding the rest of the ingredients. I like to eat it a bit warm, with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream on top.

p.s. We released the trailer for my book last week, if you haven’t seen it, please check it out!

Caramel Tapioca Pudding

Serves 6-8

4 cups whole milk, divided

1/3 cup small tapioca pearls

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon salt

unsweetened whipped cream, to serve

Combine one cup of the milk and the tapioca pearls in a bowl. Let sit for 1 hour.

When you are ready to cook the rest of the pudding. Add the sugar to a dry, heavy bottomed saucepan. Cook the sugar over medium heat, until it is melted and deep amber in color. Stir occasionally if the sugar isn’t browning evenly in the pan.

Gradually and carefully stir in the remaining milk, it will bubble and spit, while whisking constantly. Stir until the sugar is completely melted into the sugar. Then add the soaked tapioca.

Simmer the mixture, stirring often, until the tapioca is cooked through and translucent.  In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with a splash of water, then whisk it along with the salt into the pudding. Stir constantly until the mixture has thickened and the cornstarch is cooked, another couple of minutes.

Serve slightly warm, or chilled with dollops of unsweetened whipped cream.

Edible Holiday Gifts: Spicy Caramel Cashew Corn

Every year around this time I try to take up knitting. I've always wanted to give hand knit hats and scarves and chunky cowls as gifts, but every year I get about 20 rows into the same scarf and give up. Patience for learning new tasks is hard for me to come by these days. The thing is, I really love to give hand made gifts. So after giving up on knitting and purling I inevitably end up in the kitchen stirring boiling hot pots of sugar, rolling out cookie doughs and pulling the sprinkles down from the top shelf to decorate cookie ornaments. Over the years I've built up quite a repertoire of tasty gifts and this caramel corn is one of my favorite snacks to bring to a holiday party. It also looks oh so cute packed up in little jars or bags for party favors. It is salty, sweet with just a hint of heat from the cayenne pepper and it is totally addictive. I use mushroom corn here which is a super fluffy variety of popcorn that is just perfect for holding lots and lots of tasty caramel and can handle the stirring without breaking, but good old fashioned jiffy pop works too.

Spicy Caramel Cashew Corn

yield about 2 quarts of finished caramel corn

3T oil

1/2c popcorn kernels (mushroom corn if you can find it)

2c sugar

3T butter

1T salt

1 1/2t baking soda

1/2t cayenne pepper

1t cinnamon

1/2t freshly grated nutmeg

2 cups salted cashews

To Pop the Corn

Use an air popper OR if you are like me, do it on the stovetop

1. Heat the 3T of oil in a large heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat, drop a few un popped kernels in there while the oil is heating. When the kernels pop, the oil is ready to go.

2. When the oil is hot, toss in the 1/2c of popcorn kernels, put on the lid and shake the pan back and forth a few times to coat all of the kernels with hot oil. As the popcorn pops, shake the pan every 30 seconds or so to prevent the bottom kernels from scorching. Once the time between "pops" slows down to a few seconds, it's done. Immediately turn the popcorn out into a large bowl.

3. When the pop corn is cool, carefully go through and remove all of the un-popped kernels then pour the cashews on top of the popcorn, without stirring them in.

For the Caramel

1. Preheat your oven to 300ºF. Lightly oil 2 wooden spoons or spatulas (these will be used to stir the caramel into the popcorn) and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or lightly oil it (this will be used to cool the caramel covered corn).

2. In a large heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat add the sugar, butter, salt and 1/2c water. Bring the mixture to a boil (without stirring) and let it boil vigorously until it turns a light golden caramel, 10-14min.

3. Remove the pot from the heat and whisk in the spices and baking soda. The baking soda will make the mixture foam and expand so make sure you are using a large pot. The spices will cause the caramel to darken in color.

4. Immediately and carefully pour the caramel over the popcorn and cashews, grab your oiled spatulas and start gently tossing the mixture together. Keep stirring until the corn and cashews are evenly coated, then turn the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and gently separate the kernels. You don't need to go crazy here, but try to get it in an even layer.

5. Bake the caramel corn for about an hour, stirring every 15-20 minutes. Let cool completely before storing an an airtight container.

To give as gifts

Package a few cups of the corn in a mason jar, weck jar, or pretty glassine bag tied with a ribbon and a label.

Notes

- To wash all of your caramel covered bowls, spoons, and pots just soak them in really hot water and all of the sugar will just melt off.

-You can buy your own mushroom popcorn kernels JustPoppin.com quite a few times and their customer service is great, plus I really like their name.