Two luscious puddings

About a year an a half ago I began to bake through Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my Home to Yours.  I found the Tuesdays with Dorie blog and have been baking with them weekly.  But of course, there were some things that they baked before I joined and some things that I've baked and they haven't gotten to yet.  This month, I had already baked 4 out of 5 of the choices!  So this week, instead of baking the Citrus Current Sunshine Muffins again, I decided to go make one of Dorie's luscious puddings.  Maybe it was those Pots de Creme that I made a couple of weeks ago, but pudding seemed so very appealing.

My husband's vote was for  Real Butterscotch Pudding (with butter and real Scotch).  My preference was Split-level Pudding with chocolate ganache on the lower level and vanilla pudding one level up.  So I made both recipes!

The technique for these puddings is similar:  blend egg yolks and sugar in the food processor, add and blend cornstarch and salt, then pour in very hot milk (or a milk/cream combination), blend in butter and flavorings, then everything back in the pot to whisk over heat until it is thick (but not boiling).    Not really tricky, but just enough attention required to remind you that you are really preparing wonderful food.

And the puddings were truly beautiful to look at and wonderful to eat.  Much enjoyed by our musician friends who had dinner before the Contra Dance.

I topped the Butterscotch puddings with buttered pecans and the Split-level puddings with chocolate shavings.  Definitely not pudding from a box!