Problem: Just made scratch vanilla pudding from "New Joy of Cooking" : A Puzzle. . .

M

mistral

Well-known member
Called for 2 cups of milk (or half and half, which I used), 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons plus 1-1/2 teaspoon corn starch, 1/8 teaspoon salt. Made as directed, cooked for a minute as directed, it thickened as expected, just fine. Now the extra things I did were at the end, off the heat of course, when I added the vanilla, I added 2-1/2 tablespoons of butter and 3 yolks from large size eggs. I lightly beat the eggs and tempered the with the hot pudding as usual.

It was nice and thick and delicious, so I slapped a lid on the puppy and set it on the counter till after dinner--I was going to use is as a warm, thick sauce for some heart shaped brownies.

I go to check it half and hour later and 95% of the thickening is gone. It is just thick enough to not be really sloppy like milk, and is auite thin enough to pour very easily.

What the heck happened? Did it stay hot too long with the lid on (my guess is this one), or was it my vanilla (Tecul from Mexico, resurrected out of my cupboard) or my eggs? It was thick then it was not thick after setting off the heat for a while. And adding the butter and the egg yolks at with the vanilla is what I usually do when I make pudding. By the way, my daughter made the same recipe a couple of weeks ago and it was wonderful.

 
I think it has to be the heat & steam build up. I do the exact same process

Cornstarch loses its oomph when overheated, but since there is so little I would think the steam diluted it, unless eggs lose their thickening power when heated too long.

 
When finished cooking, I put a tea towel between the lid and saucepan so that

the moisture from the lid doesn't drip back into the pudding or gravy diluting it or thinning it out. Maybe this will help.

 
I think you're right Melissa because I do the same thing with great results.

It was probably overheated and watered down. I always pour it into a bowl and float a piece of plastic wrap on the surface.

 
mistral, thank you for describing so clearly the problem I've run into. I just assumed it was me and

not the ingredients or method.

 
Thank you all for your advice. Let me state, this was not a dilution of the pudding. . .

It was a complete failure *after* thickening.

My current best guess is maybe the heat continued to rise even after I added the (cold!) egg yolks and room temp butter. Maybe next time I will use both cold butter AND cold egg yolks.

 
I've always mixed the eggs into the sugar and cornstarch, tempered, and brought to a simmer This way

I know that the eggs have provided all of its thickening power along with the starch.

 
And when I added the yolks, it thickened more, but it still failed. . . ! (more)

I add the yolks at the end off of the heat so that I will not coagulate the yolks into curds and so ruin my nice, smooth pudding.

Maybe my cornstarch is too old?

 
Straining it at the end would take care of any stray egg pieces. There was so little

cornstarch in your recipe that I doubt if it made much difference - old or not. Also, cornstarch has an indefinite shelf life when stored properly.

 
I recently bought TJ's cornstarch and (more)

everything I have made with it has not thickened!
I keep thinking that it was my technique but....

 
Bad cornstarch can definitely exist, but in mistral's case, it served very little purpose-bad or not

 
I always bring the pudding back to boil after adding yolks. Then add butter.

Interesting comments about the cornstarch! I use argo as well. Hmmmm

 
Just saying - don't know for sure but I believe the problem could be...

saliva....I vaguely remember (more than 30 years ago - gulp) that some baby bottle desserts were thickened with cornflour and if you fed the baby from the jar the left over would not hold to the next feed because of the spit on the spoon.
I did two Chinese cooking courses later and during those courses we were told not to taste the food with a spoon that was in our mouths a second time because the thickened (cornstarch) food would thin.....
Perhaps that is the problem.
I do know that if I keep a pud over covered with the lid the edges of the pud get a little watery but not to the extent of thinning.
Did you sneak a taste????lol

 
I found this possible answer to the thickening problem--maybe the pud had cooled down...

too below 208 degrees and thinned out the custard.

"Heat kills enzymes in raw egg yolks, which will otherwise break down the starch bonds and thin the custard. Pudding must be brought to just under a simmer (208º) after adding the egg yolks. I like to maintain that temperature for a minute or longer to be on the safe side."

 
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