This is restaurant-grade pudding you can make at home. It's dense yet buoyant with a profound chocolate flavor thanks to the use of bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate. A healthy dose of salt balances...
Author: Melissa Clark
This creamy pudding, thickened with cornstarch and egg yolks and stirred together on the stove, is as homey as it gets. Spiking the mixture with a little bourbon or Scotch isn't strictly traditional, but...
Author: Melissa Clark
When it comes to pawpaw, accept no substitutes. Trust us; we tried. We went to a bunch of experts - scholars who specialize in fruit, plus chefs and cookbook authors who know all about the proud culinary...
Author: Jeff Gordinier
Pudding cakes are magical sweets, baking up into two distinct layers from a single, straightforward batter. On top is an airy sponge cake that puffs in the oven's heat. Right beneath it is the pudding,...
Author: Melissa Clark
All the textbooks say the same thing: cooking granulated sugar until it turns into caramel involves complex chemistry. And I'm sure they are right. But I'm just as sure that what turns sugar into caramel...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
This crowd-pleasing Southern dessert created by layering vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers and bananas is adapted from Millie Peartree, the owner of Millie Peartree Fish Fry & Soul Food restaurant in the...
Author: The New York Times
A splash of bourbon and a generous grating of fresh nutmeg transform this simple custard into a holiday sensation. Make the custard in advance, but wait to caramelize the topping about 10 minutes before...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
Ultracreamy but still ethereally light, these individual custards are set with lemon juice rather than eggs, cornstarch or gelatin. They are thick and velvety, but not overly rich, with a bright, clean...
Author: Melissa Clark
A bottle of workmanlike Scotch or other whiskey can be as useful in the kitchen as it is on the bar, contributing alcohol and flavor to a range of recipes. A splash of it can sharpen a pan sauce for steak...
Author: Florence Fabricant
This butterscotch budino from the pastry chef Dahlia Narvaez is a pudding to shame all other puddings. The budino's simple master stroke? Over the pudding hovers a thin layer of caramel with an audaciously...
Author: Frank Bruni
This cozy dessert from Sara Mardanbigi and Edgar Rico, the owners of Nixta Taqueria in Austin, Texas, is a take on sholeh zard, a loose, heavily spiced Persian rice pudding Ms. Mardanbigi grew up eating....
Author: Priya Krishna
One of the most wonderful ways to celebrate fresh (and, in this case, even frozen) fruit, clafoutis originated in the Limousin region of France. Here, a small part of the batter is baked in the baking...
Author: Nik Sharma
This traditional Iberian flan, is now sometimes called "Flan a la Antigua," or Flan of the Past. That's because it doesn't include the common New World ingredients of condensed and evaporated milk. Instead,...
Author: Julia Moskin
The journalist and cookbook author Von Diaz cooked her way through the classic Puerto Rican cookbook, Cocina Criolla, about six years ago, eventually using the experience as a jumping off point for her...
Author: Tejal Rao
Constructed from layers of soft, spongy sliced bread and tons of juicy, just-cooked fruit, this British dessert gets an update with a layer of barely sweetened whipped cream. It is the best thing since,...
Author: Alison Roman
Based on a traditional British pudding called posset, these ultrasilky custards set without the need for cornstarch, eggs or gelatin. (The acidity in the crème fraîche and brown sugar helps do that instead.)...
Author: Melissa Clark
Always elegant, chocolate mousse is not at all difficult to make, and it can be prepared up to two days in advance. A classic chocolate mousse gets its foamy consistency from stiffly beaten egg whites....
Author: David Tanis
You can look at this as chocolate mousse stiffened by caramel or as a perfect caramel enriched by chocolate. Either way it is so rich, thick, gooey and creamy, so childish in a way, that it almost requires...
Author: Mark Bittman
There are two secrets to this silky, not-too-sweet pudding, a Jamaican holiday staple from Hazel Craig, the mother of the pastry chef Jessica Craig: Freshly grated nutmeg provides the warm, toasty flavor...
Author: Priya Krishna
Using a microwave to cook lemon curd streamlines the entire process, and eliminates the need to stand over the stove whisking constantly. The result is silky-smooth and as tart as you like. Use the smaller...
Author: Melissa Clark
Shrikhand is a creamy yogurt-based dessert from western India made simply by straining yogurt and sweetening it. The yogurt is traditionally strained by pressing it between newspaper (to soak up extra...
Author: Tejal Rao
A classic, old-fashioned chocolate pudding, this dessert is made a bit more interesting by layering with whipped sour cream (for a little tang) and crushed cookies of your choosing (for texture). While...
Author: Alison Roman
Anyone looking to try one's hand at playing around with a recipe can't do better than to start with rice pudding. I began making rice pudding with our son's babysitter, a Frenchwoman named Marie-Cécile,...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
Pastel de tres leches, a traditional Latin American dessert, consists of a basic sponge cake doused in three types of milk: condensed, evaporated and whole milk or cream. Inspired by the classic cake,...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
This easy stovetop pudding is smooth, rich and tangy, just like your favorite cheesecake - but it's far faster (under an hour), far easier (no fussy water baths) and far less intimidating (the topping...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
This delicate Ottoman milk pudding has a burned bottom layer that adds a toasted-marshmallow, caramel-like flavor reminiscent of crème brûlée. The pudding itself is thickened with cornstarch for a soft,...
Author: Melissa Clark
A gelatin salad, or Jell-O mold, may seem retro, but when you make one from scratch, substituting fresh juice and fruit in place of artificial flavoring and color, it can be spectacular, making a great...
Author: David Tanis
Five simple ingredients - cream, vanilla, salt, eggs and sugar - make for an exquisitely rich and elegant dessert. Most crème brûlée recipes require the use of a small propane torch to achieve the crackly...
Author: Mark Bittman