Cornmeal pudding

At this point of my living in the United States, I am seldom in situations where I crave a sort of food that is impossible to find. A big part of this is the change that has occurred in the past decade or so in the American supermarket landscape. When we moved here, my mother and I kept running in to nasty food-related surprises. Admittedly, this was partially our fault, as we expected the stocks of basic California supermarkets, rather than specialty gourmet shops, to offer up cheeses and breads in a fashion comparable to their French counterparts. Sometimes, it was a simple problem of miscommunication. For example: in France, milk typically comes in entier (whole), demi-écrémé (partially skimmed) and écrémé/maigre (skim). So, in a misguided attempt to translate American milk packaging, we naturally bought half & half. As neither of us were big milk drinkers, it took us years to figure out this meant half cream, half milk...

But how the times have changed! I've fallen in love with American cheeses - especially with New York and New England creameries churning out a veritable panoply of incredible specimens. Beautiful loaves of bread are no longer rare finds. I even find many of the charcuterie offerings I once missed dearly. Still, a few foods, mostly pre-packaged brands, continue to elude me. While chocolate pudding is a delicious thing indeed, I miss square containers of Danettes au chocolat, or, lately, individually-sized semolina puddings with chocolate sauce. With this in mind, I set out to recreate a similar dessert with what I had on hand in pantry. The result was not a particularly accurate copy, but it did have a similarly smooth thickness in its consistency, and made for a very quick and comforting weeknight dessert.

Cornmeal pudding

(makes 4 to 6 servings)

2 cups milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsps dark rum

2 tsps orange zest

1/4 tsp cinnamon

In a heavy saucepan dissolve the sugar into the milk at medium heat. Bring to a simmer and add in the cornmeal and salt, whisking regularly.

Zest about a quarter of an orange and add it to the mixture along with the rum and cinnamon. Alternately, you can choose to spice (or not spice) the thickening pudding any way you'd like: 2 tbsp of brandy, 2 pods of cardamon, 1 tbsp of vanilla or 1 tsp or almond extract, etc...

After a few minutes, the thickened cornmeal will start to bubble on the bottom of the pan and "jump." Make sure to keep stirring at this point to avoid burning the pudding, which should be thick enough to stay trapped in the whisk - if so, you're done!

Transfer either directly to individual ramequins or a larger serving bowl. Serve either cold or warm, with fresh or dried fruit. Or, top the pudding with melted chocolate or caramel. The possibilities are endless!

Buckwheat chocolate chip cookies

I have a soft spot in my heart for more unconventional flours. In the baking aisle, I stare longingly at the spelt and kamut flours, the corn meals, the bran, etc... Inevitably, I crack, and I bring home some treasured bundle that ends up being used that week and then left in the pantry mercilessly under-appreciated. But this should not be so! Therefore, I have been on a small mission to use up the pantry staples that never quite became staples. Today's offering is a buckwheat take on that beloved icon of baked goods, the chocolate chip cookie.

Buckwheat chocolate chip cookies

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 oz. unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup unsalted almond butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350ºF, with rack in the middle. Grease cookie sheets or sheet pans (2 to 3 will be necessary, or you can of course bake in batches).

Cream together the softened butter and white and brown sugar until obtaining a light paste. Beat in the almond butter, then the eggs, salt and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the buckwheat and all-purpose flours with the baking soda and baking powder. Mix the dry ingredients into the paste with a spatula or wooden spoon.

If using a bar of baking chocolate, cut it up into a variety of sizes with a sharp knife, so as to obtain larger chunks as well as much smaller ones. I used a combination of leftover chips and baking chocolate discs, which resulted in a whole slew of shapes and sizes. Mix chocolate pieces into the batter.

Form tablespoon-sized balls of dough and arrange them on the baking sheet(s). The cookies will not pool or expand outward very much, so they can be relatively close together. Along that same vein, press the balls of dow down slightly with your fingers, as they will not flatten significantly. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. When removing the cookies from the oven, let them cool at least partially on the sheet, as they will be still too soft to handle. Yields approximately 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

When the cookies are cool, they are soft and chewy, but not in the same dense and gooey way as a typical soft chocolate chip cookie. The buckwheat flour and almond butter add a pleasant nutty depth to the taste of the batter that complements a dark chocolate well. The dough is not very sweet - there is enough sugar in this recipe for my taste, but I think it would certainly not be cloying to up the granulated sugar level to 3/4 cup.