This evening I had a wild idea to make Chai Spiced Pudding, the only problem was that until tonight I had only made two types of pudding: chocolate and chocolate. I was a little leery of just removing the chocolate from my recipes because I wasn’t sure how much the cocoa or chocolate chips affected the thickening process. So I turned to Bittman’s How to Cook Everything 
and was delighted with his Vanilla Pudding recipe. I liked it because it had the same base as my chocolate pudding recipes: milk, sugar, and cornstarch. And his method was similar to mine, so the recipe seemed as if it was intended for me to try out my idea.
- 2½ cups whole milk
- 3 chai spice black tea bags
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- .
- Pour the pudding into a 1 quart dish or 4 – 6 small bowls. Put plastic wrap directly on top of the pudding to prevent the formation of a “skin”. Refrigerate until chilled.
- Put 2 cups of whole milk in a medium sauce pan. Add tea bags and cook over medium-low heat until the milk just begins to steam.
- Remove the tea bags and squeeze out the excess liquid into the milk. Stir in the sugar.
- In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with remaining milk. Use a fork or whisk to thoroughly blend the cornstarch into the milk, ensuring there are no lumps. Slowly add the cornstarch mixture to the milk.
- Cook, stirring regularly, until the mixture thickens and just starts to boil. Reduce heat to low and continue to cook, stirring, another 5 minutes.
- Pour the pudding into a 1 quart dish or 4 – 6 small bowls. Put plastic wrap directly on top of the pudding to prevent the formation of a “skin”. Refrigerate until chilled.
Once the pudding is chilled, you can add whipped cream if you like. I use this Vanilla Whipped Cream recipe.
I put my whipped cream in a frosting decorator press
to dispense it:
Everyone in my family loved this pudding. My daughter even went so far as to request it for her birthday in place of cake. Now that I have a great base recipe, I am going to have lots of fun experimenting with other flavors!
This post is also linked to Foodie Friday, Friday Potluck, and Feed Me, Tweet Me, Follow Me Home.
What are your favorite cookbooks?
Jenna says
I love the thought of anything Chai, but never though of trying a pudding. I’m going to be trying this one ASAP.
Wit,wok and wisdom says
Hi Alea,
Found you at Hearth and Soul hop and was amused by your pudding recipe!Well.this is such an innovative idea – I love the flavor of tea a lot – so this is something that I gotta try sometime soon:)
Do drop in sometime at my place.I have an event revolving around bread currently going at my blog – would love to see you there!
Cheers,
Wit,wok&wisdom
Ubermom says
Okay, I LOVE chai and so this looks awesome to me. Need to make it…By the way, I am over from the Feed Me bloghop!
Swathi says
This spiced pudding looks delicious. Love chai spice.
April @ The 21st Century Housewife says
I love the sound of this – what a great base recipe to work from! Chai spice is such a lovely flavour to start with too. And I like the vanilla whipped cream – what a great idea – vanilla tastes good with so many things.