Well, I'd grade that experiment as about a "C" . . .

[xiphias]

I've been making puddings. (By the American definition of "pudding", which I think, in Great Britain, would be called something like "Bird's". You know, a sort of creamy, sweet non-Newtonian fluid.)

Anyway, I've got a recipe I'm using as a base, which uses sugar, cornstarch, and salt as dry ingredients, to which are added cream, milk, and eggs. With chocolate for chocolate pudding, brown sugar instead of white sugar for butterscotch, and so forth.

Now, what I've been recently doing is figuring that the fat/liquid content of the cream and milk comes out to two cups of water and one-half cup of oil. So, I've been figuring, why not just use water and oil, and emulsify it with the eggs, then use THAT with the dry ingredients?

I've done two things so far, neither of which came out perfectly, but I think I'm getting the idea of it. The first one was olive oil and rosewater, which never got thick enough, because I decided to just use the egg whites instead of using the whole egg, so I think I was too light on the proteins. And tonight's was okay but not perfect. I used a mixture of roasted peanut oil and peanut butter, to make a peanut butter pudding.

Not bad, but the texture was off -- using peanut butter as part of one's oils is always involves a bit of guesswork for me; I've never QUITE figured out the proportions. But it was interesting, at least. And not horrible.

Comments

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

I love that you enjoy cooking and experimenting to create your own recipes. If you are so inclined, could you figure out a good-tasting creamy pudding that doesn't use any sugar and, perhaps, a dairy substitute. I could use the protein from the eggs in my diet, but have given up eating eggs on their own.

I have given up asking you to create a non-alcoholic, good-tasting gin. But...

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

When you say, "no sugar", do you mean "no raw, refined white sugar", or do you mean "no sugar in any form"? Because I just can't work with Splenda, stevia, aspartame, saccharine, or any of the rest of them -- they just taste weird to me.

But if I can use raw sugar, agave nectar, or raw honey, I can probably work out something good if you give me a couple hours.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

Using agave nectar or honey (preferably local honey with its beneficial properties to alleviate pollen allergies) would be fine. A non-sweetened pudding with spices such as nutmeg and/or cinnamon might work, also. I don't like things too sweet these days.

And what about the non-alcoholic gin? (but I've stopped asking...)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to extract botanical essences without the use of alcohol. . .

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

Is there a chemist in the family?

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Ever since you posted the old fake-gin recipie, I've been thinking along the same lines (Ashni and I don't drink, although we do cook with alcohol). I would either

1) boil all of the spices and reduce the hell out of the resulting liquid, or
2) use food-grade glycerin for the extraction (this works for vanilla, but takes about twice as long as alcohol).

(Let me know if you actually end up doing this - it might get me off my ass about it.)

-Nameseeker