Adventures in Pudding

Lately, I've become excited about making fruit-flavored puddings. It's mostly the fault of a medieval cherry pudding recipe I got from The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy. I've made the cherry pudding a few times now and got to thinking, "What would other fruit puddings taste like?"

So, when we had some friends over last week, I tried orange pudding. It tastes quite a bit like orange juice as a pudding. There is probably some way to get it to taste more like an orange creamsicle (which was what I was hoping for) but I liked the end result.

Orange Juice Pudding
Adapted from The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy

Ingredients:

• Oranges (I used 7 "Stealth" oranges, which are roughly tennis ball sized and taste like navel oranges - if you end up with too much juice, just add more bread...and probably more sugar; alternately, you can use orange juice, but I don't know how much you'd be using)
  
• 5 fl. oz. white wine
• 4 slices of dry white bread, crusts removed (though I usually use frozen, non-dried bread and that works fine; you may also need less bread depending on how thickly yours is sliced - we get ours sliced thin (10-slice, for those living in a country that sells bread like Japan does))
• (MORE THAN) 1/2 cup sugar (or honey; I used the original scant 1/2 cup of sugar for the cherry pudding recipe and added orange blossom honey until the mixture wasn't sour; using honey instead of sugar may require more bread)
• A dash of nutmeg
• zest from one orange
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. butter (less might be okay; I don't strictly adhere to this measurement)

Instructions:

1. Juice oranges and strain well using fine sieve or cheesecloth.
2. Cut bread into a small dice
3. Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan.
4. Bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and let simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. As the bread swells and breaks apart, the mixture will begin to thicken into a creamy pudding.
6. If you are like me, you may need to add more bread or sugar around this point (depending on how thick/sour your pudding is). A few more minutes won't hurt, but do keep an eye on your pudding and take a potato masher to it if any new bread you might have added isn't breaking down as fast as the pudding is thickening. (optional step for spazzes like me)
7. Place into a serving bowl, cover and chill well.
8. Serve (should serve 5 - maybe more, maybe less depending on what you consider a serving)

Today, I am attempting watermelon pudding. I expect this one to be strange. I'm using a blush wine and less sugar. Also, roughly five or six slices of bread (filling the blender with small chunks of watermelon may have been more than enough). It is looking very orange. Hmm. Interesting. Nat's not going to like this one because WATERMELON! So I'll have to make a mango or pineapple pudding sometime in the future. I have a feeling the mango will be more appreciated.