Eggless Butterscotch Pudding

Posted on by Anushruti
Eggless Butterscotch Pudding

“Do you remember butterscotch pudding?” asked my aunt Rekha when she came for a short stay at my parents home. I used to make it so often years ago, she continued. Being a lacto-vegetarian, I asked her: “have you tried making it without eggs?” requesting her to make a small portion, using agar agar.  On the day she left, she made a small portion of the pudding which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Since I had not made anything for a long time, I wanted to make something when Ro came visiting. I reworked the proportions of the pudding and my mother and I made it together. It is quite wonderful to cook with my mother. When I venture into her kitchen to make something, she enthusiastically comes forward to help me.

Ro ofcourse enjoyed the pudding.  It was like old times, when he used to come visiting when we were engaged, only this time we had a tiny bundle of joy, our son amidst us. It will be quite sometime before I get back to Mumbai, until then I’m reveling in the comforts that a mother’s home has to offer.

Many stories abound the meaning of the term " butterscotch" and it need not necessarily have scotch in it. Being a strict vegetarian, I always look for lovely puddings and desserts without eggs and gelatine. Although eggs are considered non-vegetarian in India, most chefs pass desserts with gelatine as vegetarian. It is quite a task to order such desserts at restaurants. That’s exactly why I love agar-agar. It does a fantastic job of replacing gelatine in puddings and desserts, if used in the right proportions.

This pudding was very comforting to eat with the enticing butterscotch flavour. The praline gives the needed crunch to this soft, creamy and buttery pudding.

Eggless Butterscotch Pudding Recipe

Double the quantity of butter used for a more buttery taste.

Ingredients:

1 litre/4 cups  milk (preferably whole milk)*, at room temperature
8 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp butter
6 tsp cornflour/cornstarch
10 gm agar agar/china grass flakes* (10 tbsp)
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the praline:

3 tbsp nuts (almonds and cashewnuts)
2 tbsp sugar

Method:

Tear the agar agar flakes into tiny bits and place it in the water for half an hour to soften it. Mix the cornflour with ½ cup of milk and keep aside.

In a wok or a saucepan, place the butter and sugar and cook on a medium flame until the sugar turns a golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Pour in the milk and stir until the sugar dissolves.  When you pour in the milk, place the agar-agar with the water on a separate burner on a medium flame and cook until the agar agar melts.

When the sugar is dissolved, pour in the milk-cornflour mixture and cook till the entire mixture thickens. Stir in the hot melted clear agar agar solution into the milk and cook for a couple of minutes more before removing it from the heat. Stir in the vanilla extract and when it is slightly warm pour into one large pudding mould or individual ones. When it comes to room temperature, place in the refrigerator and chill for atleast 4 hours. Top with the praline powder and serve.

To make the praline:
In a heavy bottomed medium sized wok or saucepan, melt the sugar. When the sugar melts add in the nuts.  After a couple of minutes, remove from flame and immediately transfer on a platform. Flatten with a spatula. After it cools, break into pieces and use as required.

* For a tastier version use 25% cream and 75% milk or if you want to be more daring, use 50% cream and 50% milk.

* If you are using agar-agar powder, see the instructions here.

Serves 4 to 6

Related Recipes/Posts

To receive recipes, tips and inspiration that feeds your body, mind and soul subscribe to Divine Taste newsletter

35 thoughts on “Eggless Butterscotch Pudding”

  3. Anu,

    Vadilal's Butterscotch icecream was my favourite as a kid. This surely looks ten times better!! Its' really interesting how you actually show the process of making butterscotch. Wonder why it's called "..scotch" though. Does it lean back to any Scottish origin

    Cheers
    MJ

  5. Vegetation: I agree…its wonderful to recreate old favourites.

    Simi: You decide. 🙂

    Mihir: Like I said above there are many theories about the word butterscotch but none offer conclusive explanations. Some food historians believe that the word scotch means "to cut or score" as the candy needs to be cut into pieces or scotched. Another theory is that the word is a derivation of the term "butter scorched".

    Parita: Hope you try it…i'm sure you'll enjoy it!

  6. I know I'm really late to congratulate you.But better late than never.I think your website has great style ,content and recepies.I even made cookies ,looking forward for more.

    Love
    Nami.

  7. Hi, awesome recipes especially deserts.. easy n quick.. ll surely try out all ur mango desserts… n thins one too..

    Manj

  8. hi
    i am so greatful to have found a completely beg recipe for cheese cake. i usually dread not eating the ones at the bakeries as surely they got eggs/gelatin

    its really great to know u are willing to share.

    thank you

  10. Anoo: This pudding is so rich in flavour and also hearty and comforting….isnt it? Great that you like it and won rave reviews for it!

  11. Hi Anusruti, great site, thanks. Have just got into baking/deserts and stuff and finding your work using only sattwic ingredients was a god-send 🙂

    Am about to try this recipe out, and wondered – how much is 10g agar? How many tsp/tbs of flakes? I've got one of those rectangular bars of agar agar, and I guess I could cut it up into flakes.

  12. Silly me – just figured it out! The package containing the rectangular bar says 10 grams, so I'll have to use the whole bar.

    I tried cutting it into flakes and using 3 tbs of the flakes but the consistency came out custard-like. Going to try it today with the whole 10g bar.

  13. Mangala: Nice to hear from you! Don't worry all of us make mistakes which only help us to do better the next time! 🙂 A pack of chinagrass is 10 gm which is about 10 tbsp. I have had to use more than a pack at times as the packaging in these 10 gm chinagrass flakes is not very accurate always. It is best to measure the weight in a weighing scale, if its not feasible then use 10 tbsp as a guide.

  14. Adding 2 points from my experience which may help ppl making this for the first time:

    1) When you're mixing cornflour with milk, use cold milk, i.e. milk at room temp. The cornflour knots up if you use hot milk and cannot be used.

    2) After you cook the sugar and butter to a golden brown, let the pan you cooked it in cool for a little while before adding the milk. If you add the milk straightaway into the hot pan(especially if it is a thick-bottomed pan like I used) the sugar instantly aggregates into thick crystal clumps that are hard to break up and melt.

  15. Mangala: Thank you for sharing your tips. What I have noticed is that even if the sugar clumps, when you add milk and cook stirring it, it melts away and becomes homogenous with milk!

  17. Hi Anushruti,

    Over here (sydney) i have not found agar agar flakes 🙁 might be i havent done whole research where to get them. but in the organic shop they have it in powder form. how much do i need to use if the agar agar is in powder form and also what abt the step where you said that blow agar agar so that it melts.

    Thanks for your help.

    Regards
    Ambika

  20. Anushruti,

    Could you please tell me if this pudding can be used to fill a cake? My sister loves butterscotch flavoured cakes and I want to make a normal vanilla cake with this stuffed between the layers.

    Please advice.

    Shankari.

  21. I have nothing against agar-agar, but I have a pack of pricey vegetarian gelatin with an expiry date fast approaching..
    Could you please let me know if I can substitute agar-agar with the veg. gelatin? And if so, how much of gelatin should I use? My past experiences with this gelatin have not been great- I probably use too much! 🙂

    Thanks in advance 🙂

  22. Hi! Tried this recipe during diwali party and was superhit!!! The flavour of sugar and butter was amazing. I dint got agar agar in Vile parle so i used veg gelatin which i had..the out cum (texture) was like Kharvas.Thanks for sharing!

  23. Hello,

    I made this pudding, following the instructions, to the 't' and of-course, it was a success…. Thank you.

    Likewise, I would like to make fruit terrines, with Agar-Agar, but rather -apprehensive, regarding the quality / quantity of 'Agar-Agar' to be used with the so-called 'Indian' brands.

    Can you please, provide me with any thumb-rules, guides which can be followed as a standard, so, that the results will be consistent.

    Thanks and regards,
    Devasena.

  27. Hi,

    I am unable to get china grass here (Johannesberg). Is it possible to avoid it? or may be some other replacement besides gelatin.

    thanks

  31. hi anushruti 🙂 trie;d out this delicious pudding & all of us at home loved it ! a lovely eggless pudding with subtle flavours which tempted our tastebuds for another serving 🙂 thankyou for this delicious recipe 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *