Clio Goodman - Puddin: Luscious and Unforgettable Puddings, Parfaits, Pudding Cakes, Pies, and Pops

Copyright 2013 by SGS Edibles LLC

Photographs, except as noted below, copyright 2013 by Ben Fink Photography

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

S PIEGEL & G RAU and the House colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Photos on are by Larissa Drekonja and are used by permission.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Goodman, Clio.
Puddin : luscious and unforgettable puddings, parfaits, pudding cakes, pies, and pops / Clio Goodman ; with Adeena Sussman.
pages cm
Hardcover ISBN 978-0-8129-9419-3
eBook ISBN 978-0-8129-9420-9
1. Puddings. 2. Desserts. I. Sussman, Adeena. II. Title.
TX773.G648 2013
641.8644dc23 2013004255

www.spiegelandgrau.com

v3.1

For my family and friends,
for encouraging and believing in
all of my crazy ideas

COOKIES AND CAKE TOPPINGS

SAUCES, COMPOTES, AND TOPPINGS

CANDIES AND CRUNCHIES

I NEVER EXPECTED to open a dessert shop devoted to pudding, but I guess if you look closely, the signs were always there. Most children get caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Me? I was the kid filling up the cookie jar with the sneak-worthy treats.

I grew up in a family of food-loving artists and musicians, with my grandfathers masterly paintings staging the backdrop for meals prepared by my mother. Music was supplied by my dad, who can play just about any instrument handed to him, as my brother, Emmett, and I sketched cartoons furiously in the corner. When it comes to food, my mom, Hevra, has always been a kitchen-based Harriet the Spy. She doesnt just cook; she makes a point to learn about every recipe shes mastering, researching and taking meticulous, almost scholarly notes. Every new dish is accompanied by curated information repeated devotionally at the table. In addition to encouraging my love of drawing and cartoons, Mom detected an early interest in baking. She bought me dessert kits, books, magazines, exciting ingredientsart supplies for the budding pastry wonk.

Weekends and after-school hours were spent scouring the Internet and reading cookbooks, immersing myself in marathon baking sessions that left me covered in powdered sugar, and rolling fondant, scribbling notes, and illustrating my adventures. The best part was feeding my family the sweets of my labor. They were a willing but honest audience. The compliments came alongside constructive criticism that helped me grow and prepared me for a life in desserts.

This sugar-dusted upbringing led me to the Culinary Institute of America, where I studied baking and pastry arts and discovered that much of the curriculum consisted of things Mom had already schooled me on at home. With my upbringing as my ballast, I felt free to sail creatively. I viewed the entire pastry-school experience as one massive art project with scientific and culinary underpinnings. I dont know what I want to make, but this is what I want it to look like, Id tell my professors, who would shake their heads, then move away as I dreamed in sugar, flour, and vanilla.

After school I ended up working as a pastry chef at New Yorks famous Union Square Caf, which laid the groundwork for my future. There I learned to balance an artists short attention span with a restaurant workers discipline, teamwork, and long hours.

Once I left Union Square I began working as a private chef for the brother of a friend of mine. I cooked everything for him, from daily meals to elaborate dinner parties attended by dozens. One night I served pudding for dessert. Id made it growing up, loving the way a few simple ingredientsmilk, sugar, eggs, and cornstarchcould come together to create something so simultaneously elegant and comforting. My chocolate pudding became his house dessert, stocked at all times in his fridge and much in demand by his friends and colleagues.

Eventually I went into business with him, opening a tiny shop in New Yorks East Village that sells puddingbut distributes good cheer to the neighborhood free of charge. The days before the shop opened were sheer madness, with me developing recipes around the clock, and a manic schedule and shoestring budget conspiring against us. But we opened on time and sold out of all our wares that very first day in January 2012.

Everything we sell at Puddinand I mean everything is house-made, from (of course) the puddings, cakes, and cookies to the confetti-like sprinkles to the graham crackers, fudge sauce, and marshmallow crme. They would be easier to buy, but thats just not my way. I view every recipe as a labor of love, worked on and tweaked until it meets my standards, specifications, and creative vision. All of those recipes, and many more, are here in these pages. There are classic puddings youd expect, such as chocolate, vanilla, and banana, and more unexpected flavors, including cashew, passion fruit, and malted milk. Then there are cakes, parfaits, sauces, and condiments that are the edible expression of my culinary dreams. I know I may be biased, but theyre all pretty irresistible. I hope you love them as much as I do. Happy puddin!

Great ingredients yield stellar results. Its the cardinal rule of cooking, so try to use the best-quality milk, eggs, and fruit you can find. That being said, these recipes work with staples you probably already have in the house, making them supremely convenient to produce.

Always, always, always mix your milk and other ingredients while they are very cold, and make sure youre working away from any heat source. In order for the cornstarch to really do the important job of thickening and stabilizing the pudding, it needs to be dissolved in cold milk. Otherwise it will clump up and leave your pudding tasting starchy and dry. When you strain the pudding, if you see lots of white clumps in the strainer, it means you didnt mix it enough. You may also wind up with a loose pudding.