it was worth my $3.79

one and a half cups of sugar for $3.79. fancy, super-molasses dark brown sugar (billington's dark brown molasses sugar).

i'm behind on my issues of gourmet because of studio, and i flipped through the...november? december? issue and glimpsed a two-handled bowl-cup filled with some sort of unctuous, delicious-looking joyful thing. after all, who can resist eating out of such cute dishware? i happened to think about the pudding as i was at the supermarket one day, and invested in a package of billington's dark brown sugar, the designer sugar at star market that also happens to be very good.

i was thinking about the pudding in the context of my new oblong tart pan; i mulled it over for a few days before i decided it was a good idea to put a brown sugar pudding in a tart. i wanted to have a nice, buttery, flaky tart shell with the pudding, some sort of fruit layer, then ganache. make the tart shell with bacon fat, and you would have one of the richest desserts imaginable. as for the fruit, i thought about oranges, or berries, but ultimately decided to go with a seasonal (and cheap) choice: apples. i was sure that they would go well with the pudding, but i didn't know about the chocolate. since fondue always involves fruit and chocolate, and apples are often a part of the fruit selection, though, i thought i'd go for it.

i bought pink lady apples at star market because they were pretty, and i discovered that they're a great apple - they stand up to a lot of cooking and don't get mushy, and the texture is nice and firm. they're a fairly tart apple, too, which was a great contrast to the deepness of the pudding and chocolate.

unfortunately, the tart shell didn't really work out that well. i may have added a little too much water; and i thought there might be too little butter in the recipe. it turns out i was right - it tasted a bit floury, and a bit tough. it did cut well, but i've made better tart shells.

the tart filling was another matter entirely - i really liked this tart, as it was more adventurous that i've been in the past. i did it as a cold dessert, though i think the ideal way to make the tart is to bake the shell, then dump in very cold pudding, top it with hot apples, and drizzle chocolate on it. i had conceived of the tart as being cold, originally, because i wanted the ganache to entirely cover the surface - thus making the interior a surprise. this involves having a tart pan with high enough sides to admit that much filling, which is not the case with any of my tart pans - whoops! lack of foresight on my part...heh.

but the pudding is definitely a winner - i would make it over and over again, because it had a better texture than any other pudding i've ever made. i suppose it's the cornstarch? i'll have to revise my rather negative view of cornstarch - which is based on those all-too-viscous technicolor sauces that you get at bad chinese restaurants.

without further ado:

brown sugar pudding
(adapted from gourmet nov 2006)

2 cups half-and-half
3/4c packed dark brown sugar
2T cornstarch
2 egg yolks
1/4t salt

1. stir together half-and-half, brown sugar, and cornstarch in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan and heat over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved and mixture is heated through (don't let it boil).

2. whisk together yolks and salt in a medium bowl until smooth, then add hot half-and-half mixture in a slow stream, whisking. a good way to do this is to have nonskid bowls or to put your bowl on a silpat so it doesn't move as you pour with one hand and whisk with the other. i do not condone the use of kitchenaid mixers, pretty as they are.

3. return mixture to saucepan and cook over moderate heat, whisking, until mixture reaches a boil, then boil, whisking, 1 minute (it'll thicken). pour through a sieve into a clean bowl. press plastic wrap on the surface to cover the pudding and chill (or serve warm).

[serves 4-6; doubles easily, though the stirring time will be longer]