Today's failed baking experiment

jacqui said:

Today I gave in to my craving to make something sweet, settling on the
Sweet Cornmeal Pudding from Elizabeth Luard's _The Old World Kitchen_. It
was, as the title of this post suggests, a complete failure. I ended up
with a heavy, rubbery mass which bears no relation to ... well, anything
I'd consider a dessert. I've posted the recipe below. I *think* the
problem might have been the cornmeal: not a coarse enough grind; or the
honey: the semi-solid, rather than liquid, honey that's commonly available
here in DK.
Any thoughts?

Sweet Cornmeal Pudding
Serves 6

2 cups milk
3 ounces coarse-ground cornmeal
1/2 pound honey
Grated rind of 1 lemon
4 whole eggs
1 ounce (2 tbsp) butter

Preheat the oven to 425F. You will need a heavy saucepan, a mixing bowl,
and a Bundt pan.

Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan (Milk burns easily -- if you rinse
the pan out with cold water first, the milk is less likely to stick).

Mix the cornmeal, honey, and grated lemon rind together. Beat in the
eggs. Add the hot milk slowly, beating to prevent lumps from forming.
Butter the Bundt pan -- or choose little molds to make small cakes for
children, or more delicate cakes for grown-ups. Pour the mixture into the
pan.

Bake for 30 minutes for a large cake, or half the time for the little
ones. This is delicious on a wintry evening, with a glass of sweet white
wine made from grapes which have been left on the vine so long they have
shriveled in the frost.

Looking at the recipe, I suspect that what you got was what you were
*supposed* to get. I don't see anything which might lighten it up, and if I
were following that recipe, I'd expect a leaden mass. If you were to try
again -- and I wouldn't, frankly -- you could try mixing the cornmeal,
honey, lemon rind, and egg yolks together. Beating constantly, add the milk
to the cornmeal just a little at a time. Beat the egg whites separately
until they form soft peaks, then fold them into the cornmeal mixture gently
but thoroughly. Bake as directed.

Bob

jacqui{JB} said:

Today I gave in to my craving to make something sweet, settling on the Sweet
Cornmeal Pudding from Elizabeth Luard's _The Old World Kitchen_. It was,as
the title of this post suggests, a complete failure. I ended up with a
heavy, rubbery mass which bears no relation to ... well, anything I'd
consider a dessert. I've posted the recipe below. I *think* the problem
might have been the cornmeal: not a coarse enough grind; or the honey: the
semi-solid, rather than liquid, honey that's commonly available here in DK.
Any thoughts?

Sweet Cornmeal Pudding
Serves 6

2 cups milk
3 ounces coarse-ground cornmeal
1/2 pound honey
Grated rind of 1 lemon
4 whole eggs
1 ounce (2 tbsp) butter

Preheat the oven to 425F. You will need a heavy saucepan, a mixing bowl,
and a Bundt pan.

Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan (Milk burns easily -- if you rinse
the pan out with cold water first, the milk is less likely to stick).

Mix the cornmeal, honey, and grated lemon rind together. Beat in the eggs.
Add the hot milk slowly, beating to prevent lumps from forming. Butter the
Bundt pan -- or choose little molds to make small cakes for children, or
more delicate cakes for grown-ups. Pour the mixture into the pan.

Bake for 30 minutes for a large cake, or half the time for the little ones.
This is delicious on a wintry evening, with a glass of sweet white wine made
from grapes which have been left on the vine so long they have shriveled in
the frost.

That recipe is like totally broken... for one it has no leavener... A
HALF POUND OF HONEY to 3 measly ounces of cornmeal it bee sweeter than
candy.... seems like it wants to be more a custard than a pudding,
but...

Try this...

CORNMEAL CAKE WITH SWEET ROSEMARY SYRUP AND BLACKBERRIES
For cake
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2/3 cup milk
Sweet Rosemary Syrup

Accompaniments
lightly sweetened whipped cream
2 half-pints blackberries

Make cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. and butter and flour an 8- by 2-inch round cake
pan.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and sugar
until light and fluffy. Add remaining cake ingredients and beat on low
speed until combined. Beat batter on high speed until pale yellow,
about 3 minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in middle of oven 40 minutes, or
until a tester comes out with a few crumbs adhering.

Make Rosemary Syrup while cake is baking.

Cool cake in pan on a rack 10 minutes. Invert cake onto hand and
return, right side up, to rack. While cake is still warm, gradually
brush 1/3 cup syrup over it, allowing syrup to soak in before adding
more. Chill remaining syrup in a small pitcher, covered. Syrup-soaked
cake may be made 1 day ahead and kept wrapped in plastic wrap at room
temperature.

Serve cake, cut into wedges, with whipped cream, blackberries, and
remaining rosemary syrup.

SWEET ROSEMARY SYRUP

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a small saucepan simmer all syrup ingredients except vanilla 10
minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool syrup 30
minutes and strain through a sieve into a 2-cup measure.

Gourmet
June 1995
---

Sheldon

"Bob Terwilliger" <virtualgoth@die_spammer.biz> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

jacqui said:

Today I gave in to my craving to make something sweet, settling on the
Sweet Cornmeal Pudding from Elizabeth Luard's _The Old World Kitchen_.
It
was, as the title of this post suggests, a complete failure. I ended
up
with a heavy, rubbery mass which bears no relation to ... well,
anything
I'd consider a dessert. I've posted the recipe below. I *think* the
problem might have been the cornmeal: not a coarse enough grind; or
the
honey: the semi-solid, rather than liquid, honey that's commonly
available
here in DK.
Any thoughts?

Sweet Cornmeal Pudding
Serves 6

2 cups milk
3 ounces coarse-ground cornmeal
1/2 pound honey
Grated rind of 1 lemon
4 whole eggs
1 ounce (2 tbsp) butter

snip

Quoted message said:

Looking at the recipe, I suspect that what you got was what you were
*supposed* to get. I don't see anything which might lighten it up, and
if I
were following that recipe, I'd expect a leaden mass. If you were to
try
again -- and I wouldn't, frankly -- you could try mixing the cornmeal,
honey, lemon rind, and egg yolks together. Beating constantly, add the
milk to the cornmeal just a little at a time. Beat the egg whites
separately until they form soft peaks, then fold them into the cornmeal
mixture gently but thoroughly. Bake as directed.

Bob

I would expect something like a pretty stiff custard. Half a cup of
cornmeal on top of 4 eggs in 2 cups of milk should make something like a
custard, but since the cornmeal will absorb part of the liquid, it will
be sort of hard. It won't be fluffy at all.

It's sweet, that makes it dessert. If you want it softer, back off on
the cornmeal or add some more milk.

del cecchi

jacqui{JB} said:

Today I gave in to my craving to make something sweet, settling on the Sweet
Cornmeal Pudding from Elizabeth Luard's _The Old World Kitchen_. It was, as
the title of this post suggests, a complete failure. I ended up with a
heavy, rubbery mass which bears no relation to ... well, anything I'd
consider a dessert. I've posted the recipe below. I *think* the problem
might have been the cornmeal: not a coarse enough grind; or the honey: the
semi-solid, rather than liquid, honey that's commonly available here in DK.
Any thoughts?

(recipe snipped)

Your recipe sounds almost exactly like the old New England
recipe for Indian Pudding except for the honey. Indian
Pudding calls for molasses instead.

Yes, it is heavy--a custard with cornmeal suspended in it.

I don't think you did anything wrong.

gloria p

Del Cecchi said:

I would expect something like a pretty stiff custard. Half a cup of
cornmeal on top of 4 eggs in 2 cups of milk should make something like a
custard, but since the cornmeal will absorb part of the liquid, it will be
sort of hard. It won't be fluffy at all.

It's sweet, that makes it dessert. If you want it softer, back off on
the cornmeal or add some more milk.

Oh, I agree with what you wrote. In my post, I was trying to come up with a
method to make it softer and lighter by incorporating as much air as
possible before baking. In other words, I *want* it to be fluffy.

Like Gloria, I was reminded of Indian Pudding by the recipe, and since
Indian Pudding is a heavy custard, I opined that Jacqui hadn't made any
MISTAKES, it's just that the recipe is SUPPOSED to be like that. But I find
Indian Pudding unpleasantly heavy, and my post was a reflection of what I'd
do to make the recipe more pleasing to my tastes.

Bob

"jacqui{JB}" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Today I gave in to my craving to make something
sweet, settling on the Sweet Cornmeal Pudding
from Elizabeth Luard's _The Old World Kitchen_.
It was, as the title of this post suggests, a complete failure.

Thanks for the feedback, folks. I think this is a case of a recipe simply
not being what I wanted (well, combined with my rather finely ground
cornmeal). If I try it again, I'll try separating the eggs and folding in
the separately whipped egg white to lighten the mixture.

Remarkably, the end product wasn't particularly sweet (I'm not a fan of
really sweet things); of course, I wasn't using liquid honey but the more
solid honey available here locally (in DK, where I live now; versus San
Diego, where I'm from) so that may have made a difference.

And Sheldon, thanks for the recipe -- it sounds like a good one.
-j