Eggless Butter Pudding
An easy to make, delicious butter pudding with bread and other yummy ingredients to make a pudding that's easy to serve guests and at parties.
Ingredients
- 4 teaspoons vanilla custard powder
- 6 grams china grass or agar agar
- 1/2 cup water
- 500 ml milk
- 100 grams unsalted butter cut into chunks
- 200 grams condensed milk
- 4 slices bread crusts removed (see notes)
- 1/3 cup unsalted nuts almonds, cashew nuts, anything you have in hand
- A pinch salt
Instructions
- Mix the custard powder with enough milk from the 500 ml we have measured out, to make a loose mixture without lumps. Set aside
- Heat water in a pan and add the china grass. Mix till it dissolves and becomes lighter. No need to dissolve fully, we will be cooking it later.
- Remove this to a bowl and set aside
- Add rest of the milk to pan on low heat
- Add the china grass mixture first
- Then, add the butter and condensed milk
- Mix frequently keeping the pan on low flame until the butter has fully dissolved
- Now add the salt and custard powder mixture to this and stir continuously, maintaining the heat low
- When the mixture thickens a bit (see picture below), turn off heat and add the bread slides, roughly torn up
- Give everything a good mix and set aside to cool completely
- In the meantime, powder the nuts coarsely and set aside
- When the milk mixture has fully cooled, blend to a smooth paste. It will be thick when you transfer to the blender but will become pouring consistency after blending
- Pour into a tray greased with butter
- Garnish with the powdered nuts generously, forming an even layer on top of the pudding
- Cover and refrigerate for about 4 hours
- Cut and serve chilled with more powdered nuts on top if desired
Notes
- The bread slices in India tend to be smaller than what we see in other parts of the world. I didn't weigh the bread but you can see rough size in pictures. Add lesser if you find the bread is large or a lot. Exact measurements are not critical for bread in this recipe anyway
- This pudding is not firm and slice-able beyond forming a loose square. Please expect this consistency and don't be disappointed if not
- I haven't tried avoiding any one ingredient completely, like the china grass. If you want to try thickening just with custard powder, you can try it. Please let me know if you do!
- Cashew nuts, pistachio, almonds etc can be used for the top of the pudding. Some shaved chocolate may be nice too, in addition to the nuts. Tutti frutti would make a lovely addition as well.