With all of the new TV appearances and other Alton Brown news going on this week, I neglected to post this week’s recipe attempt.
On a trip to a local Amish market last weekend, I was drawn to aisle with rice, barley and the like. Then I spied a bag of tapioca pearls. They called to me. I needed to try AB’s pudding recipe. Yes, this would be the coming week’s new recipe attempt!
Much to my surprise, I had everything on hand at home already. Well… ok, I didn’t have a lemon. I’ll deal with that later. As the snow fell outside, I decided my treat would be some homemade pudding. The first thing was soaking the tapioca pearls overnight. 3 1/2 ounces of the little balls and a pinch of salt went into a container and sat awaiting their fate.
The next day I had to locate my slow cooker. My goodness, I can’t remember the last time this thing was used. Once I located it, dusted it off from years of non-use it was time to make some pudding.
In the slow cooker (actually, I can say Crock Pot since mine is made by the original company, Rival) went the drained pearls, 2 1/2 cups of milk and 1/2 cup of heavy cream. This mixture then cooks on high for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, mix 1/3 cup of sugar and an egg together. I did use Splenda here. Slowly add some of the milk/cream/tapioca to the egg mixture–about a cup. Once the egg mixture is tempered, then put that mixture back into the slow cooker with the rest and resume cooking for 15 minutes.
This is where I varied from Alton’s recipe. Remember that I didn’t have a lemon? Well instead of added the called for lemon zest, I used some vanilla extract. I added the extract after the pudding was finished cooking for the 15 minutes.
I might lose a few points for presentation since I have a patchwork of different service pieces. I couldn’t find all of my sundae dishes. But the final pudding was put into some glasses and cooled for one hour before being sent to the chill chest.
This is an excellent pudding. Very easy to make and simple. The taste is creamy and in my case vanilla-y 😉 I have a whole bag of tapioca pearls, I can’t imagining them lasting much longer.
All About Alton Brown 
Sorry, but the homemade stuff still looks spoiled to me. But my dad loves the stuff so I might have to try and make some for him.
By: MysteryWriter on February 6, 2009
at 8:34 pm
My uncle lives in Melbourne, Fl and grew tapioca root in his backyard. He made pudding out of it for me one year that we went to visit, after I asked. Talk about fantastic stuff! I was young and had no idea how he prepared it, but I remember him digging up the funky looking root and thinking, he’s going to make pudding out of that!?
By: Elizabeth on February 6, 2009
at 9:28 pm
Looks delish, Lis. I love tapioca so that recipe could get me into some trouble.On a similar note, have you ever had Boba (Bubble) Tea? There are a couple restaurants around here that are dedicated to it. Hundreds of flavors. I love it. The big tapioca pearls coming up through the jumbo straws bothers some people, though :o)
By: My name is Luke. on February 6, 2009
at 9:53 pm
I’ve heard about Boba Tea but I’ve never had it or knw how to make it. I would love to give it a try! 🙂
By: Mise En Place on February 6, 2009
at 10:04 pm
Your work on this recipe comes out looking so very delicious…WOW…I love this pudding and want some now…when are you moving next-door…lol…As for the presentation, perhaps a shot of just one of your beautiful glasses to show the yummy pudding that you made. (Just a thought for the future…)Wonderful work, chere Lisa…
By: feasting-on-pixels (terrie) on February 7, 2009
at 1:29 am
Thanks :)I need to send out samples to the readers! LOL
By: Mise En Place on February 7, 2009
at 3:35 am