Puddings are perhaps the simplest, most sumptuous and satisfying desserts around, and most of the time all you need to do is cook them—they don’t even need baking. They are the simplest desserts ever that aren’t as heavy as say a piece of ganache cake or tiramisu. All it takes is a pan with a few staple ingredients and all you need to do is put them in a pan and boil until they are thick. Some puddings require a few extra steps but, other than that, all of them taste the best chilled. They also work well as best birthday surprises and can be enjoyed in any context.
Straight from France, this dessert is the essence of one of the simple pleasures of life. Consider the whimsical French film Amélie, where the lead loved cracking the caramelised top of a crème brûlée. This dessert would technically be custard if we go by the book, but over the years this has become convoluted and it also doubles as a pudding by modern-day definition. It's a delicious egg custard that is cooked, put into cute ramekins and chilled to set after it is poached using the bain-marie method. However, the English and Spanish contest as to who invented the OG custard and crème brûlée was one of the creamy custards originating from the Middle Ages.
Another baked custard-like dish, Flan is also popularly eaten as a pudding, think caramel custard. Sugar is first caramelised and poured into the bottom of the pudding dish or ramekin then the custard, made with dairy products, is poured over it. This sets into a thick, luscious texture that gives it a slight quivering texture, again, similar to the average caramel custard. This is inverted on plates with a generous helping of caramel sauce cascading over the Flan, to form a caramel sauce pool around the Flan.
From the heart of Iran comes this Persian saffron rice pudding, that dates back to the country's ancient roots. Plain rice pudding gets a makeover with rose water, deep vermillion saffron threads and cardamon. It is cooked in water with sugar and the flavouring additions that make for a fragrant and thick pudding that is filling and delicious not only for the olfactory senses but for the sight too.
Also having ancient roots like the Persian Sholeh Zard, Kheer goes by different names in different parts of the country, from payasam or payesh. Kheer is a rice pudding but tends to be a little thicker than payasam. The rice is slow-cooked in milk with sometimes dried fruits and nuts added to the bubbling kheer. A pinch of saffron and cardamom pod or two is added to flavour this hearty pudding, which just gets better chilled, as it loses its freshness.
Originating from the Piedmont region of Italy, panna cotta today is quite famous and the appeal lies in its unassuming simplicity. It is literally just cream, with a teeny bit of gelatin, that is sweetened with sugar and flavoured with vanilla, and cooked. Panna cotta had been around way before the first recipe that appeared in print in 1960. This dessert is wobbly with a silky texture and rich given the full experience one gets from using only cream. Puddings often have some sauce of sorts, and panna cotta is usually eaten plain with some versions having sauces. A hazelnut-meringue biscuit accompanies the one from Piedmont, called Brutti ma buoni, another region uses a splash of peach brandy during the cooking process which is then topped with a sweet red berry coulis. Some other regions also make boozy panna cotta using local rum and marsala wine and with a finish of caramel sauce to complement the vanilla flavour.
This pudding from Turkey is like a hotchpotch trifle of sorts, because it has bits of cake at the bottom which is topped with chocolate pudding. The pudding uses dark chocolate that makes it almost sinfully delicious and for the extravagant, sometimes ice cream is also used to top the Supangle. Ground nuts like almonds, pistachios and walnuts are common toppings and sometimes they surprise with the occasional coconut.
This pudding has a strong cultural significance just like kheer and is traditionally a part of Christmas Eve supper. A bowl of Kutiya is made with wheat, berries, honey, nuts, walnuts, and poppy seeds. But this pudding is said to have existed long before the birth of the particular religion and is associated with praying for a good harvest. Before sitting for supper, families offer it to Father Frost for him to stay away from their harvest. Then, some of the Kutiya is tossed at the ceiling and it is said the number of wheat grains that stick to the ceiling is the indication of how good or bad next year’s harvest would be.