Thursday, February 4, 2010

Pudim (Brazilian Dessert)

Submitted by Beth Johnston

There are a few ingredients that seem weird, but the Brazilian lady I got it from swears by those 2 ingredients. Also the cooking technique is key/crucial, so I will do my best to explain. So the actual title is Pudim....according to Jeff a 'd' followed by a vowel turns to a soft 'g' sound (or 'j' or 'sh') and the 'im' turns to more of a 'in' or an 'en' sooooo, the pronunciation is something like poosheen. Can you tell I don't speak a lick of Portugese!! Anyway, here is the recipe..... (it might seem like a complicated recipe, but it really is quite easy, just a little time consuming)


*1/2 c.-3/4 c. white sugar

*1/2 slice of white bread, in cubes

*4 eggs

*1 can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated) I think the can is about 14 or 15 oz.

*1 can regular milk (2% fat or higher) Just fill the swtnd. cndsd. milk can with regular milk.

*Sprinkle of shredded (not the powder kind) of parmesan cheese. (I think I added less than a tsp.....just a sprinkle in the top of the blender) this is the ingredient she swears by, but I don't see how it could make much difference. :)


First,

In a small saucepan start heating the sugar on medium'ish heat. This takes a while, but eventually the sugar will liquify and turn to a syrup....but in a moments time it can burn so don't heat on too high of heat and watch and stir closely. Once it goes liquid and all the sugar is dissolved, it will turn a differnt color, a sort of amber/gold color. At that point it is done. Pour it into your flan pan immediately (I just used a 9 in. pie plate and it worked great). It will harden and crack, but that is fine, just make sure you have it in the pie plate before it gets hard. You actually want it to harden so it doesn't mix with the custard batter.


Next,

In a blender, blend the bread until it is in crumbs. Add the eggs and blend well, but don't over blend. Add sweet milk, milk, and parmesan cheese. Blend until mixed well, but again, don't over blend. Pour egg/milk mixture into the pie plate that has the syrup coating on it. Cover pie plate with foil.


To bake it you are going to use the Water Bath Method


This is the easiest way I have found to do this. Set a 9x13" baking dish in the preheated oven and then gently set the pie plate down inside the 9x13 baking dish. Then add cold water to the 9x13 dish until it is about 1 in. up the side of the pie plate. Gently push the oven rack in and start baking.


Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until a fork comes out clean. The original recipe said 45 min.-1 hour, but mine took about 1-1/2 hours to bake. To check it with a fork just tear a hole in the top of the foil. You don't want to take the foil off from the edge because it could get water in your flan and that isn't good. If it needs more baking time after checking it don't worry about replacing the foil, just let it cook with the foil that is already there.
Once it is done just lift the pie plate out of the water bath and let it cool in the pie plate. Once it is cool run a knife around the edges and turn it out (upside down) onto a plate and put it in the fridge to cool completely. The hard coat of sugar will be liquid again and will run down the sides of your flan. Yum, yum.

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