Rhapsody in pudding

chocolate and sweet cream pudding parfait cups

Who doesn't love pudding?  Maybe there is someone, someplace, perhaps in a far away land in a make-believe world, who doesn't care for it.  But I can't imagine anyone not liking it.  If you don't like one flavor, there are many others to choose from.  But the creaminess, the texture, the possibilities for so many flavors and flavor combinations ... well, all of this adds up to a special simple little dessert.  

I love things made with milk and cream.  For many people their drink of choice when they are tired and worn out might be a beer or a wine cooler.  For me, it's always been milk.  When I feel like something "stronger", I go for chocolate milk.  Well, in my estimation chocolate pudding is like chocolate milk, only thicker.  I love all sorts of flavors, though, not just chocolate.  I made mango pudding once.  I enjoyed it, although it was new to me and I filed the recipe away as something to look at again in the future and tweak and learn to understand how to improve my technique in making it.  I once saw a recipe for green tea pudding.  "Interesting," I said out loud to myself, but I didn't give it a try -- perhaps in the future sometime.  Butterscotch pudding is a great flavor, but I've yet to master it with a strong enough flavor that I'm satisfied with it -- again, perhaps in time.  There are so many flavors to choose from.  It's like trying to read all the great books in a library.  You can make pudding with countless flavors and combinations.

The picture above shows a new addition to the full menu at www.brucebakeryandbistro.com.  I like making these pudding parfait cups.  They are just the right size for a little snack.  And I love the homemade flavor more than what is found in store-bought commercially-manufactured mass-produced pudding cups.  I make these with traditional vanilla sweet cream and alternatively with almond sweet cream.  Almond sweet cream is a favorite addition of mine to many desserts.  The infusion of almond extract into traditional sweet cream makes for an astounding change, at least to me.  

I love the appearance of these cups as well.  They remind me of Holstein cows spotted in fields that one passes when they are out for a drive in a country setting.  I suppose in the case of butterscotch pudding, the cow would be a Jersey.  With mango pudding ... my knowledge of cow breeds is not sufficient to enable me to pair one up with that.  With the green-tea pudding I mentioned earlier?  Well, that would be one bizarre looking cow, at least for what we are used to seeing  in our world.  Maybe in that make-believe world where that pudding-non-conformist exists one might find a cow breed for that comparison.

I am happy to have added these pudding parfait cups to the menu.  I hope you will give them a try when they are offered on one of the weekly rotating menus.

Have a great weekend everyone and have a safe and healthy Fourth of July.