Humble, yet heavenly to eat, this recipe for American style hasty pudding is perfect when you need a simple and comforting cold weather dessert. Essentially a rich cornmeal porridge laced with molasses and classic autumn spices, it makes the whole kitchen smell incredibly cozy. And after being topped with the requisite scoop of good vanilla ice cream, the alchemy is truly irresistible. My favorite finishing trick is to sprinkle a few flakes of sea salt (like Maldon) over the top before scooping on the ice cream....utterly sublime.
Ingredients for Hasty Pudding
- whole milk
- light brown sugar
- yellow cornmeal
- molasses
- ground cinnamon
- ground ginger
- unsalted butter
- pure vanilla extract
- vanilla ice cream (for serving, but absolutely necessary!)
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Heat the oven to 325℉. Lightly grease the ramekins with butter, and place them on a baking sheet.
Then combine the milk, brown sugar, cornmeal, molasses, cinnamon, and ginger in a heavy saucepan.
Whisk over medium heat until the pudding mixture bubbles and thickens up, but remains pourable enough to be ladled into the ramekins, about 10 minutes.
Then remove the saucepan from heat. Whisk in the butter and vanilla extract until thoroughly incorporated.
Next ladle the pudding mixture evenly into the ramekins.
Bake until the puddings are golden brown on top and the centers still appear a bit jiggly, but not liquid, when the pan is shaken.
Allow the puddings to cool for 10 minutes. Then serve with a very generous scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Hint: This recipe can easily be scaled up to 8, 12, or as many ramekins as you can muster if you are looking to serve a large crowd.
Variations
Can't get enough of those warming spices redolent of fresh pumpkin pie, apple cider, and all of your coziest autumn dreams? The spice component in this pudding can of course be adjusted to suit your taste. Feel free to increase the amount of cinnamon and ginger...or to toss in some additional favorites like allspice, cloves, or freshly grated nutmeg.
Equipment
The best choice in baking vessels for these individual hasty puddings are ramekins made of porcelain, ceramic, or stoneware.
Storage
The puddings can be made a day or two in advance, and then gently reheated until warm.
Top tip
I recommend using regular (light or dark) unsulphured molasses here...not the blackstrap variety. Regular molasses comes from the first boiling of the sugar syrup, and it is far more delicate in flavor than blackstrap, which can be overpowering in dessert applications due to its rather bitter finish. (Save the blackstrap molasses for your meat recipes and BBQ.) Since some brands do not clearly indicate on the front of their labels what specific kind of molasses is actually in the bottle, it is always a good idea to check the ingredient list on the back.
📖 Recipe
Hasty Pudding
Equipment
- four ramekins (4 ounce capacity)
Ingredients
- 2½ cups whole milk
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar packed
- ⅓ cup yellow cornmeal fine or medium grind
- 3 tablespoons molasses
- ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (plus more for greasing the ramekins)
- ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- vanilla ice cream for serving, but absolutely necessary!
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 325℉. Lightly grease the ramekins with butter, and place them on a baking sheet.
- Combine the milk, brown sugar, cornmeal, molasses, cinnamon, and ginger in a heavy saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until the pudding mixture bubbles and thickens up, but remains pourable enough to be ladled into the ramekins, about 10 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat.
- Whisk in the butter and vanilla extract until thoroughly incorporated.
- Ladle the pudding mixture evenly into the four ramekins.
- Bake until the puddings are golden brown on top and the centers still appear a bit jiggly, but not liquid, when the pan is shaken.
- Allow the puddings to cool for 10 minutes, and then serve with a very generous scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Amy
This dessert was a huge hit with my guests. So yummy and the individual servings made it easy to serve. Thanks!