It’s that time of the year when the whole world is in a festive mood. Peace & joy are the two words that come to my mind whenever I think about Christmas time. I think those two words are very much relevant today especially in the background of Mumbai terror attacks. It is a sad fact that frequency of such brutal attacks are on the rise in present times. Hope and pray that all the responsible parties will stop the blame game and do something meaningful and productive to prevent such evils.

Along with millions of people I also pay tribute to those who have lost their lives & their loved ones. Also pray that those who have sustained through that nightmare find the courage to overcome that horrifying experience. Let this Christmas time help us to regain the hope for a peaceful & joyous world.

Through this post I’ve revisited one of the recipes I posted during the initial days of blogging. I’ve made only minor changes in the recipe (back then I wasn’t able to post a pic of the same). So am posting the recipe again. I would say this is one of the easiest and yummy deserts that you could make at a very short notice.

Here is the recipe:

1. Bread – 4 slices
   Butter – 2 1/2 tbsp
2. Milk – 3/4 cup
   Egg – 1
   Sugar – 1/4 cup & 1-2 tbsp
   Vanilla essence – 1/4 tsp
   Cinnamon powder – 1/4 tsp
3. Cashew nuts & raisins – a handful,chopped

Grease a steaming dish. Remove the crust from bread pieces & apply butter to both sides. Cut in triangular shape or cubes. Spread these pieces in the dish. Sprinkle the chopped nuts & raisins over the bread pieces. Combine milk, sugar, egg, vanilla essence & cinnamon powder. Beat well. Pour this over the bread pieces. Cover the dish with aluminium foil.

Fill water to the 1/4th of the steamer/appachembu. Place the pudding dish in the steamer. Cook on high flame for 14 minutes. Switch off the gas and keep the steamer closed for 4 more minutes. Open the steamer and take out the dish and remove the foil. Allow it to cool for sometime. Serve warm or cold.

Notes: I used butter bread and Amul butter. I think these two factors enhanced the flavor of the pudding (You can use either salted or unsalted butter, it’s a personal choice). Though you can serve it cold, we preferred it warm. If leftover is there, refrigerate and microwave the pudding for 15-25 seconds before serving. There are a variety of recipes for bread pudding, so I don’t claim any authenticity for this recipe. It’s just the way we like it, hope you also  like it :) . The above measurements is good to serve 3 persons.

You can see the old version here.

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I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Though we celebrated, I didn’t cook much this time…I outsourced everything for a change :)The only thing I made was mousse pudding with stewed pineapple and praline. Mousse pudding is nothing but china grass pudding, it’s very basic stuff and easy to make. I’ve posted the recipe of mousse pudding in the initial days of my blogging and I wasn’t able to put the picture that time. Moreover I used to have it without pineapple those days, so am just publishing the modified version.

You can see the mousse pudding recipe here.

For the base:

Pineapple – 2 medium chopped

Sugar – 1 cup

Cook the chopped pineapple with sugar, till the juice is completely dried and the pineapple is coated well with sugar. Let it cool. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

For the topping:

Cashew nuts – 10 – 15

Sugar – 2-3 tbsp

Melt sugar in a bottom heavy pan. Once the sugar is completely melted and becomes golden brown in colour add the cashewnuts. Switch off the gas and stir the cashew nuts so that it is coated well with the caramel. Transfer the nuts to aluminium foil or butter paper. Once it is cooled, crush it with rolling pin and later grind it coarsely.

Serving suggestion: Spread the stewed pineapple as the base layer, moose pudding as the middle and praline as the top layer.

Why not leave a comment? Quick, head on over to MariasMenu.com for more tasty, delicious and simple recipes! Remember to check out the Recipe Index to find some easy-to-cook dishes. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about MariasMenu!

This pudding was made to celebrate a small milestone that I achieved in blogging. This is my 100th cooking post! ~WoW~ When I started blogging… I never thought I’d be able to maintain it for more than a few months. But MariasMenu.com is now more than a year old and am still blogging. I’d like to say a “BIG THANK YOU” to my husband (who inspired me to start this), my family & friends (and blogging friends) and ESPECIALLY my main motivator… YOU, my readers, for your unending support and encouragement.

Speeches apart… now let’s start cooking :)

This is a simple & easy to make pudding. The base is mostly bread pudding and the topping is meringue. You can stop with the base if you like it that way. So here is the recipe for the Queen of Puddings.

1. Fresh white bread crumbs – 75gm, 3 pieces approx
   Granulated sugar – 25gm
2. Full cream milk – 450 ml
   Butter – 25 gm
   Grated rind of 1 lemon
3. Eggs – 2 medium, separated
4. vanilla essence – 1/2 tsp
5. Seedless raspberry jam – 2 tbsp
6. Caster sugar – 50 gm

Preheat the oven to 170 degree/325 F. Oil a 900 ml/ 1 1/1 pint baking dish. and reserve. Mix the breadcrumbs and sugar together in a bowl. Pour the milk into a small saucepan and heat gently with the butter and lemon rind until the butter has melted. Add the vanilla essence & stir well. Allow the mixture to cool a little, then pour over the breadcrumbs. Stir well and leave to saok for 30 minutes.Whisk the egg yolks into the cooled breadcrumb mixture and pour into the prepared dish. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until firm and set. Remove from the oven. ( If you don’t want topping, you can stop at this stage. Once the pudding is cooled, keep in fridge and serve cold)

Allow to cool slightly, then spread the jam over the pudding. whisk the egg whites until stiff and standing in peaks. Gently fold in the caster sugar with a metal spoon. Pile the meringue over the top of the pudding. Return the dish to the oven for a further 20 -25 minutes, or until the meringue is crisp and just slightly colored. Serve hot or cold.

Happy Cooking!

Notes: Be careful to use baking dish of the correct size to get the right thickness for the base.
Recipe source: Everyday Cookery, Baking

Why not leave a comment? Quick, head on over to MariasMenu.com for more tasty, delicious and simple recipes! Remember to check out the Recipe Index to find some easy-to-cook dishes. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about MariasMenu!