Butterscotch Pudding

Has anyone ever made pudding from scratch?  I honestly never thought about it before - it's always just been a mysterious, delicious powder in a box to me, so when I saw a recipe for butterscotch pudding I decided to try it.   It helped that I was having a sweet craving and there is nothing weird in this recipe that I would have to try and find in Israel!

Side note - I have been trying to find graham crackers here and having no luck.  None.  I have gotten used to sifting through baking recipes carefully now so I don't get my hopes up for a certain thing and then discover it is impossible (for me) to find a crucial ingredient (I'm looking at you, corn syrup).  I realize there are many things in specialty shops somewhere downtown or out in a big box store in the suburbs but that is seriously not happening just so I can bake something!  I think I'll have to get creative with substitutions - can you substitute butter cookie crumbs for graham crumbs?  I'm about to find out.  heh.

So anyway, turns out homemade pudding is delicious!  Although this was a bit too sweet for me, in small quantities I quite liked it (yes, I did try at first to eat like half the recipe in one go, it tasted good). This recipe is also super simple!  It's dead easy and no fail.  Except I failed a bit...but that was my own fault because I made my usual substitution of demerera (raw) sugar in place of dark brown sugar, but oh well.  Mine ended up very vanilla. The dark brown would have made the colour better and the taste more "butterscotchy" because of the molasses.  Also I love that this uses whiskey - it adds a nice flavour.  Zach said he couldn't taste it, but since I still think a sip of straight whiskey tastes like gasoline, I noticed it!  If you are a whiskey enthusiast like Zach, you may want to add more to taste :)  If your palate is not quite as "whiskey acclimatized" (like me) you will probably like the tiny bit called for in the recipe! (or don't put it in at all)

This stuff is not cheap in Israel - but it is cheap in the Pearson Airport Duty Free! Score :)

From Joy the Baker the recipe is:

4 Tbsp butter
1 cup dark brown sugar     **I recommend not substituting light or raw sugar since you need that dark,
3/4 tsp salt                               molasses flavour
3 Tbsp cornstarch
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp good vanilla extract  (Thanks Charlotte!)
1 Tbsp whiskey (optional)

You can see here how white it is!  Dark brown sugar it is, next time...

1) Melt the butter in a medium pot, add the brown sugar and whisk until it is combined (the sugar won't really melt), then take the pot off the heat
2) In another bowl, whisk the salt, cornstarch and 1/4 cup of milk until there are no lumps.  Whisk in the eggs
3) Put the pot back on the heat (medium low) and add the above mixture and the rest of the milk and cream - stir very often until it simmers (it will get thicker).  As it simmers, whisk constantly until it is the thickness of hot fudge
4) Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, stir in the vanilla and whiskey (if using) and then cover with plastic wrap directly on top of the pudding (keeps it from getting a gross skin)
5) Let it cool and thicken in the fridge for at least an hour