We were having one of the last gatherings of the holidaze season and, well, it was the holidaze, so I wanted a wow-worthy dessert.
Pudding!
“Pudding?”
Yeppers! Home made and with a not so secret ingredient: bourbon.
No, this pudding is not for the kiddies, people, trust me on this.
I found the recipe on line, but there seemed to be so many errors in method and unnecessary warnings about “danger” that I am not linking to it.
I also,of course, changed a few things – like, the amount of bourbon called for.
All in all, it was a big hit, and since many of our dinner guests at this meal have issues with gluten, did I mention that this pudding is Gluten-Free?
Coolio!
A quick note: a large, non-stick pan and low heat will be your best buddy with this recipe.
INGREDIENTS
•1/4 cup unsalted butter
•1 cup dark brown sugar
•2 cups heavy cream, divided
•1 cup whole milk
•1/4 cup bourbon
•6 large egg yolks
•1/4 cup corn starch
•1/2 tsp Kosher salt*
•2 tsp vanilla extract
*No Kosher salt? No problem! Just use 1/4 teaspoon of table salt instead.
Melt the butter over medium low heat, stirring every now and then, until it is thick and wet and 
well blended, but the sugar hasn’t melted just yet – mebbe five minutes or so.
Whisk in one cup of the heavy cream, and still over medium low heat, cook for another ten minutes or so, stirring once in a while.
You begin to see how that low heat is your best buddy here.
At his point, the butterscotch is gonna thick a bit, and be very silky smooth.
Whisk in the remaining cup of heavy cream, 3/4 of a cup of the whole milk, and the bourbon, and the vanilla, then turn the heat to low and let’s get the egg mixture put together.
Whisk the 1/4 cup of remaining milk into the corn starch in a large mixing bowl until smooth, then whisk in the six egg yolks and the salt.
This is the part I differed with the original recipe, which called for simply pouring the egg mixture into the warm butterscotch pot.
Nope.
I chose to ladle a bit of the butterscotch mixture into the egg mixture while whisking until it was well incorporated and then added another ladle just for safety sake.
This is called tempering, and if you skip this step, you may very well end up with butterscotch scrambled eggs.
Now that the egg mixture has been warmed up, feel free to whisk it into the remaining butterscotch in the pan, still over low heat.
Cook, stirring constantly, until the pudding has thickened and just begins to bubble.
Remove from the heat and transfer to a storage container or individual dessert glasses.
I was a bit short on pudding glasses at the time, but a container with a tight lid worked a treat.
Stash the container in the fridge to chill until needed and, bonus; the pudding maker gets to lick out the pan!