Whether you’re using a box of banana Jell-O filling for a cream pie or whipping up parfaits for dessert, the world of pudding includes much more than just the basic varieties of chocolate and vanilla. In the past, the most common way to prepare pudding was to mix ingredients with a grain product or other binding material (like flour, butter, eggs or cereal) to create a solid product. Nowadays, people boil, steam or bake creamy and thickened puddings from scratch.

A couple of ways to step outside of your pudding comfort zone include:

1) Fruit Bread Puddings

To create a new pudding, you may add tropical juices and other fruits to elevate the taste and texture of your recipes. For example, Fruity Bread Mango Pudding may contain Rubicon mango exotic juice drink paired with dried cranberries and mango.

2) Yam (or Sweet Potato) Pudding

Around the holidays, candied yams and sweet potato pie are popular desserts. You probably don’t think of yams and sweet potatoes as creating satisfying puddings, but these healthy starches offer quite a taste and consistency with common ingredients, such as butter, brown sugar, lemon juice, grated lemon peel, and slivered almonds.

3) Steamed Fruit Puddings

Boiling water is used as a method of preparing steamed puddings, where cranberries, plums and apples serve as common ingredients. Known as a popular sweet treat in England, Devon’s Georgie Porgies Puddings offers two tempting steamed fruit selections: Orange & Cointreau (an orange flavored triple sec liquor) and Cider & Apple (contains West Country cider and apples). For a holiday twist, use canned or fresh pumpkin puree to create a steamed pumpkin pudding, which tastes heavenly with a whipped cream or brandy sauce topping.

4) Latin American Rice Pudding

Take a page from Latin American and Caribbean cookbooks by preparing a rice pudding called “arroz con leche” (rice with milk). When preparing this sweet treat, the typical list of ingredients differ per country. In Chile and Mexico, the pudding contains raisins soaked in sherry wine or tequila. Colombians soak their raisins in red wine, rum or pisco – Peruvian liquor distilled from grapes. Anise seed adds a touch of licorice to the Cuban version of arroz con leche. In Peru, it is not uncommon to find shredded coconut or walnuts added to the pudding.

photo courtesy of becco

The modern form of ice cream is a relatively new concept, even though treats made out of ice have existed since ancient times. During the 5^th century BC, the Greek markets of Athens offered a dessert that combined honey, fruit and snow. Over time, ice treats continued to grow in popularity. For example, the infamous conqueror Alexander the Great took pleasure in feasting upon snow ice mixed with honey and nectar. Today, the recipes of Greek ice cream have evolved to include more complex flavors and textures.

One of the most unique Greek ice cream selections I’ve come across is Pagoto Kaimaki, known for its distinct taste, which offers an almost crunchy texture due to using mastic-resin as an ingredient. With a strong, slightly smoky aroma, mastic resin comes from a tree and is typically added to chewing gum. Mastic is generally sold in drops of resin that requires a mortar and pestle to grind before using in ice cream. The addition of salepi (flour made out of grinded orchid plant parts) to Pagoto Kaimaki causes the ice cream to thicken and become more resistant to melting.

photo courtesy of gbrink

Other Greek ice cream creations include:

Olive Oil Ice Cream

Can you imagine what an ice cream tastes like that uses olive oil as an ingredient? From Greece and Italy to select restaurants in New York City, using a fruity olive oil to make frozen sweet treats is not unheard of. Common toppings for this kind of ice cream include flecks of sea salt, roasted apricots, sliced strawberries, bittersweet chocolate sauce or a balsamic chocolate sauce.

Pagpto Kataifi Chocolate

This ice cream involves a very fine, shredded phyllo dough pastry that looks like vermicelli or angel hair pasta.

Pagato Krema

To recreate a basic recipe for Greek vanilla ice cream, you will need 2 cups of full fat milk, 6 egg yolks, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 1 ¼ cup of whipping cream (or double cream). Once made, you can dress up the ice cream with chocolate chips, cookie pieces, or strawberry sauce.

Ranging from palm-flavored mini cakes with shredded coconut (khanom tan) to jasmine scented coconut pudding (tako), the majority of Thai meals end with fresh fruit or a sweet snack as dessert. Chao kuai is a grass jelly typically served with shaved ice and brown sugar, while sangkhaya fak thong combines egg and coconut served with pumpkin. In the United States, Thai desserts containing mango, coconut milk, and sticky rice are most popular, like the ones listed below:

The Importance of Mango

In Thai cuisine, mango plays an important role – added to entrees, side dishes and especially desserts. If you’d like to explore Thai sweets that include the delectably sweet fruit, consider mango sorbet and pudding. Mango Sorbet usually requires the use of a blender or food processor to produce the light and airy frozen treat of sweetened water flavored with iced fruit juice or puree. For a quick Thai treat, Mango Pudding only takes about 15 minutes to create. Some recipes use coconut milk instead of whipping cream or evaporated milk, which livens up the flavor of the mango.

Thai Mango Sticky Sweet Rice

Sticky rice (also known as glutinous rice) possesses a glue-like consistency and is used in a variety of Thai desserts and dishes. You can locate sticky rice at an Asian grocery store or a supermarket aisle offering international food products. A colander is generally used to steam the sticky rice or it is made on a stovetop in a pot. This classic tropical blend starts with saturating the sticky rice in coconut milk and ends with slices of fresh or frozen mango as a topping.

Pandan Rice Cake

Another Thai dessert that uses sticky rice is the two-layered Pandan Rice Cake – a relatively healthy treat that’s low in sugar, rich in protein, and low in saturated fat. The first layer consists of sticky rice, coconut milk, and a green-colored paste known as “pandan” – made from the juice of Pandanus amaryllifolius leaves. The first layer is also sweetened with white or brown sugar (and sometimes maple syrup). The second layer is comprised of eggs, coconut milk, sugar, pandan paste, and rice flour. Often served warm or at room temperature, the cake is usually decorated with fresh fruit or drizzled with toasted coconut.

Thai-Style Crème Caramel

The Thai version of the traditional crème caramel dessert uses coconut milk in place of cream, which supplies the body with good fats that help lower your cholesterol. Most recipes create a whipped treat you pop in the oven in less than ten minutes.

Green Tea and Coconut Cake

A favorite at potluck gatherings, dinner parties and afternoon tea, Green Tea and Coconut Cake blends healthy green tea with shredded coconut, brown sugar, and coconut milk. Because of the ingredients, this Thai dessert offers a low-fat, low-carb, low-sodium treat. Typical recipes use about three teaspoons of green tea powder, such as Japanese ‘macha’ – found at health food stores or Asian import markets.

Image Credit: Sue Pizarro (suzula) – sticky rice & mango