Indian Pudding

I made Indian pudding for Thanksgiving this year.  I had never made it before, but I was told that that's what we were bringing for dessert.  It turned out delicious and I'll definitely be making it again.

I didn't have a recipe for the pudding, so I googled it and came across wildly differing ingredients and methods.  Usually I can pick the top six recipes that come up in a search and at least three of them are very similar.  Not the case with Indian pudding.  I ended up using the basic recipe from Durgin Park, the spices and most of the cooking method from the Wayside Inn and filled in the rest from the other pages I read.  Basically, you can make this any way you want and call it pudding.  You wouldn't be wrong.

I discovered it can be overcooked, when I did my trial run.  Not that overcooked is bad - but it ends up so firm you can slice it like bread (I tend to overcook my rice pudding, too.  <sigh>).  Second time I thought I had undercooked it, and it turned out to be done just right.  Everyone enjoyed it.

Indian Pudding

1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
6 cups milk, divided

Blend 4-5 cups of the milk with the rest of the ingredients in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Cook, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens.  Pour into a 2 or 3 quart casserole dish and bake at 325F for 30 minutes.  Pour the remaining milk over the pudding, and bake for 30-60 more minutes until pudding is set (the middle is somewhat firm;  test doneness with a knife).