carrot pudding. yes, carrot pudding.
Yea, I know it sounds weird, but it’s not. It’s tasty. Trust me. The camera does not do this justice.
This recipe is originally from the 1777 printing of Cookery and Pastry as taught and practiced by Mrs Maciver, teacher of those arts in Edinburgh. I caught this on Glenn and Friends Cooking, and being of Scottish descent myself, I had to give it a shot.
Now I’m updating this post on Thanksgiving, November 25th, 2021. I’ve done this a few times now. In the era of this original recipe, most puddings boiled or steamed, and as a finished product is very similar to a custard. With the exception of adding the dried fruit, I did the original recipe and it was too sweet and too buttery. It literally could not hold all the butter.
Take 2, I did half the amount of butter and sugar, and it was great. Not too sweet, no congealed butter in the bottom of the pan after it cooled. Then in making it for turkey day, I changed the process a bit to make it easier – no need to pre-melt the butter, and makes for a few less dishes. For this most recent batch I also cooked them in muffin tins, they puff up greatly, then deflate once they start to cool. It made for a good way to serve them at our Friendsgiving. Take about 10 minutes off the cooking time if you go this route. The main thing I’m still struggling with is getting this to release from the pan, even oiling the muffin tin did not prevent sticking. If I get this figured out, I’ll add another update.
Ok, here’s the recipe as it’s printed in the book…
Boil some good carrots; and when they are well clean’d, weigh half a pound of them; beat them very fine in a mortar; mix two or three spoonfuls of sweet cream along with them; beat ten eggs, (keep out half the whites), with half a pound of sugar; mix all well together, and season it with beat cinnamon, or orange grate, if you have it, as it makes it eat like an orange pudding; mix eight ounces of oil’d butter in it, just when you are about putting it into the oven.
The first time I made this, I didn’t have orange, and used cinnamon. Second time, I did orange. Third time, I did a batch and a half with zest of an orange as well as about 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. I honestly don’t think you could go wrong with either, or both.
Overall, my impression of this is almost like a pie filling, and you could probably do this recipe with sweet potatoes or butternut squash, or canned pumpkin and get a very good fished product, and given that seems very much like a pumpkin pie type filling, I may even try doing this in a crust of some sort. If, or rather when, I try any of these variations, I will add in some updates.
While it can be eaten fresh from the oven or after it’s cooled, I prefer warm… either right away or re-heated slightly. I have not tried any toppings, but a drizzle of cream or some whipped cream would likely be delightful.
carrot pudding. yes, carrot pudding.
ingredients
1/2 pound carrots
1/4 cup half-and-half or cream
4 oz butter
1/2 cup dried cranberries, raisins, currants or blend (optional)
5 eggs + 5 egg yolks
4 oz sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon or zest of one medium orange
directions
- Preheat oven to 325°F
- put dried fruit, if using, in a 1 cup, heat proof container
- mash carrots into a smooth puree, an immersion blender works well.
- boil or steam carrots until very soft, strain, adding some of the hot liquid to the dried fruit, return carrots to pot
- add the butter, mash the carrots, turning on low heat as needed until butter is melted, add the cream
- puree the carrots using an immersion blender, food processor or some sort of masher
- in a medium bowl, mix the 5 whole eggs and 5 yolks, sugar, and cinnamon or orange until smooth
- stir egg mixture into carrot mixture until fully combined, pour into an 8×8 or similar size baking dish and put in oven on middle rack, bake for 10 minutes
- drain the dried fruit, and after baking for 10 minutes spread fruit evenly over top of pudding and bake another 35 minutes. If not done, continue to bake, checking for doneness every 5 minutes, for up to 1 hour before removing from oven.
- the pudding will start to firm up from the edges inward, and is done when there is only a small amount of movement when the pan is slightly shaken. It will continue to firm up as it cools.
- Serve warm from oven, or chilled, or reheated.
recipe video
notes
- In immersion blender works well for mashing up the carrots, but isn’t needed. For blending the eggs and sugar mixture, an electric mixer makes it easier, but again, not entirely necessary.
