Muhallabia Pudding

So, last week we had a friend who was celebrating Ramadan over for dinner.

I wanted to make something REALLY delicious because I knew how hungry he would be {after fasting all day}. Slow cooker chicken tikka masala was a no-brainer. Adam had been asking for it again forever, and it’s one of our very favorite dishes. It would be easy to toss in the slow cooker first thing in the morning then transfer over to Adam’s house that evening. Done.

I did some research for dessert. Again, I wanted to make something really delicious and special because Omar had recently gone home for a weekend and brought me back some of his mom’s special homemade basboosa {an Egyptian treat made with semolina and coconut} after he found out how much I love sweets. I don’t have much experience making Middle Eastern food, even though I really love it.

Muhallabia is a Middle Eastern pudding that {Omar said} can also be made using ground rice. This version is probably a little more Americanized, and is essentially just an easy milk pudding, thickened with cornstarch and eggs, and flavored with cinnamon and cardamom. To me, it tasted just like snickerdoodles!

If you’ve never made homemade pudding before, now is your chance. This is a great one to start with because it’s so easy to throw together.  I promise, after you make homemade pudding once and realize how simple it is, you’ll never buy the packaged stuff again.

Unless you are making pistachio pudding cupcakes. In that case—totally acceptable.

We all loved this muhallabia pudding! It was perfectly creamy and tasted very comforting with all the vanilla and spices. I would love to experiment with this next time and use this pudding as a pastry cream piped inside chocolate cupcakes or something. Clearly I have ho-hos on my mind.

Go make this pudding!!! It’s be a perfectly lovely dessert after a falafel burger or two.

Muhallabia Pudding

slightly adapted from Moosewood Celebrates

serves 4

Print this Recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom

4 cups milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tbsp butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and cardamom in a large bowl. Add just enough of the milk to make a paste.

Pour the rest of the milk in a medium saucepot and turn the heat to medium. Add the sugar “paste” and the eggs. Mix well so that the sugar dissolves and there are no lumps. With the heat on medium, whisk constantly for 8-10 minutes until the mixture gets very thick. Remove from the stove and stir in the butter and vanilla. Mix until smooth.

Pour into glasses and place pudding in the fridge for about 3 hours, or until cold and thick. Serve with freshly whipped cream, blueberries or as is.

Time:

active time–15 minutes

total time–4 hours