Butterscotch Pudding

While I was at my mother's this weekend, I found in her recipe pile a recipe for butterscotch pudding. I have never made pudding before, a bit afraid of the process. But I also have never seen a more simple recipe before. This has all basic ingredients you already have in the kitchen and is not complicated! I only used 1 pot, which is always a bonus!
The only downside is you have to constantly be stirring it. But it does not take too long to cook, so if you have a solid 15 minutes, it can be done.

Because the pudding cooks so fast, I got all of my ingredients ready before I started so I wasn't running around trying to get them together as I was trying to not let it burn to the bottom of the pan.


Tip for egg yolks: An egg separator is one kitchen gadget that I believe is worth its money. It makes for flawless separation, especially if cracking eggs neatly is not a strength. I originally started by cracking them over a bowl, but my egg separator did not fit on the edges. I started to master the one-handed crack, until my mother told me about using a mug! It fits all 6 whites and I didn't have to use 1 hand (although I did like the challenge!).

The recipe is pretty straight-forward. I made sure that there were NO lumps of brown sugar by crushing them with the whisk. The part that took the longest was waiting for it to come to a simmer, because I wanted it to take its time so it didn't stick to the bottom. With the cornstarch, it could very easily get out of control.

This is what it looked like after whisking in all the milk.

I do not have a fine-mesh sieve, and don't even know what it is used for. So, that is another reason I made sure there were no lumps in the first step of mixing.

Not everyone has custard cups. I happen to have a few because I stole them from my mom when I moved out, otherwise I would have none. The custard cups are only useful if you will be serving them for guests within a day, but would take up too much room in my fridge. So I tried using 2 custard cups (to follow the recipe) and the rest went in a glass pyrex bowl (much more practical).

The bigger bowl took just as long to set as the small cups, so if it's just you or you and 1 or 2 people, and you aren't concerned with looking fancy, putting it in a glass bowl to chill works just as well.
It didn't have a very strong butterscotch taste, but did have a vanilla taste, and was the perfect consistency of pudding after letting it set for over 4 hours.
I hope you enjoy!

Butterscotch Pudding
6 large egg yolks
1 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp coarse salt
3 cups milk, divided
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a medium saucepan (off heat), whisk egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, salt, and 1/4 cup milk until completely smooth; very gradually, whisk in remaining 2 3/4 cups milk.
2. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, whisking occasionally. Simmer, whisking constantly, 2 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in butter and vanilla.
3. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl (or spouted measuring cup, for easy pouring). Divide evenly among six 6-ounce ramekins or custard cups. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.