When I looked "pudding" up in the dictionary, it was defined as "a cooked sweet dish served after the main course of a meal: example, rice pudding". Another dictionary defined it as "a dessert with a creamy consistency". I'm going to be so bold, at this point, to say that the dictionary's definitions are highly underwhelming and don't do pudding justice at all.
Especially when it's pudding like the specimen pictured above, and which I'd like to talk about with you today, which I am going to try to sum up in a single, humble word by calling it...SUPERPUDDING.
You see, it must be called Super because if all pudding is at least good, this one is great. The secret to its success? It's made, instead of milk, with pudding. I know--your head just exploded at the mere concept.
You heard that right. The pudding is mixed with...well, pudding, to create a new variety of the dessert you thought you knew. What separates it from the rest is most notably consistency. If you like a pudding that has the texture of loose yogurt, then don't bother, just go to another website.. But if you like a pudding that is so thick and flavor-packed that it coats the tongue, then this one is for you.
In fact, it is so thick that if you turn a spoonful of it upside down...it will stick to the spoon. I'm totally not kidding.
But how do we mere mortals make this ambrosial dish? It's easy.
All you do is get a box of cook and serve pudding. And you follow the package instructions. But instead of milk, you use pudding. Pre-made. It can be homemade, but you might lose your sense of urgency by waiting for it to cool.
The pudding mix requested 3 cups of milk; the pudding was just under 3 cups' worth, so I figured...meh, close enough. So I just replaced "milk" with "rice pudding" in the recipe.
I started by pudding the rice pudding in a saucepan. Then I added the pudding mix.
Then, I heated it up. I shoud tell you, though, pudding does not heat like milk. It won't start to simmer, it will start to scorch. So you just keep stirring like your life depended on it so it doesn't scorch, and when it starts to thicken, remove it from the heat.
Give it another stir or two, transfer to a heatproof bowl, and let it chill out in the fridge for a while. Unless you like warm pudding, in which case you can just let it cool until it's warm and not tongue-burningly hot.
Either way, it's going to thicken...a LOT.
I put mine in pretty parfait cups, and so it didn't look like a chocolate mess, I added a butter cookie for a little color contrast.
So, let me tell you more about the pudding. Like I have mentioned...it's so thick. To make a comparison, it's almost like the difference between a generic supermarket yogurt and a very thick greek yogurt in terms of how thick it is.
I loved the combination of rice pudding and chocolate, too. The thickness really seemed to compress everything into an intensely textured and flavored treat. It tasted far more decadent than your everyday chocolate or rice pudding. I was curious to see how it might fare if I let it cool even more, put it into molds or ice cube trays and let it freeze--it seemed like it might be like a frozen truffle or something. Or at least a super-tricked out pudding pop.
I love you, Superpudding.
Superpudding
Procedure