A traditional old New England dessert, a version of the English hasting pudding, made with cornmeal and molasses.
Food - Drink
The Messy Dessert You’ll Only Find In New England
By NATASHA BAILEY
Hasty pudding is a traditional English dish made simply with flour, milk, and sugar, but when colonists first arrived in modern-day New England, they had trouble finding the right ingredients. Instead, they replaced the typical flour with cornmeal and substituted molasses for refined sugar, creating the dessert known today as Indian pudding.
New England Today says that Indian pudding was so popular, the recipe began appearing in cookbooks as early as the 1700's. These days, Indian and hasty puddings are mostly eaten as a dessert, and incorporate butter, eggs, vanilla, and spices to create a tastier, richer treat that is often served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Indian pudding is different from other puddings because it includes cornmeal, which was used by Native Americans for centuries before they taught colonists how to make it. Molasses was also cheaply produced in massive quantities in older New England, and this sweetener gives Indian pudding a dark color and warm flavor.
Today, Indian pudding is still hard to find outside of New England, but if you happen to be in the area, stop by a local inn and try this delicious, messy treat. You can even make your own by cooking cornbread, brown sugar, molasses, dates, eggs, butter, milk, and spices in a slow cooker on high for 2-3 hours.