Pudding or Blancmange and Trifle

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Pudding is included in most Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games. In these games, the only required ingredients usually are Milk and Egg but there are a multitude of optional ingredients. 'Pudding' is one of the best Cooked Dishes to take on any exploration of the Mines in the early stages of a game. It has good Energy Recovery values.

Rather to my delight, one of my favourite 'puddings' in the form of Trifle has been added to the Recipes for Sweets in the new Harvest Moon game, Sunshine Islands. A traditional recipe for Trifle is included here as well.
This is the easiest, old-fashioned Pudding and probably is as close as possible to 'Pudding' in any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons Sugar
4 tablespoons Cornstarch
2 tablespoons Butter
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 cups Milk
dash of salt

Using a little Milk, make a smooth paste of the cornstarch, sugar and salt, adding more milk gradually until all the milk has been added and the paste has completely dissolved without creating any lumps. Place the mixture in a saucepan and cook it over medium heat, stirring constantly. Do not allow it to come to a complete boil if possible. When the mixture thickens, remove it from the heat and add the butter and vanilla extract, stirring to melt the butter and mix it thoroughly into the Pudding. Place in individual glass dishes and allow to cool.

Less cornstarch can be used to create a custard sauce to be poured on top of cakes. More cornstarch will create a thicker pudding. If you like a richer pudding, you can add a beaten egg yolk to the milk mixture. This will make it slightly golden rather than white. The traditional English 'Bird's Custard' actually is a form of Blancmange.

Coconut Blancmange

One of my own favourite variations to plain Blancmange is Coconut Blancmange. Instead of using only Milk, I replace half of the Milk with Coconut Milk. I sometimes add a little cardamon to the pudding with the vanilla at the end. Other spices that are wonderful in this pudding are nutmeg and cinnamon.

Chocolate Pudding

You can add cocoa or melted semi-sweet chocolate to the milk mixture in order to make Chocolate Pudding.

Trifle

A traditional English Trifle often contains a layer of Pudding as well as custard sauce.

To make a simple Trifle, cut Pound Cake or any sponge cake into thin slices and create a layer at the bottom of a large glass bowl or dish. Cover this with a thin layer of jam or fruit puree. If you like an alcoholic Trifle, you can sprinkle or saturate the cake with Sherry, brandy, rum or any other liqueur before you add the Jam or Fruit.

Your next layer is Blancmange or any other kind of Vanilla Pudding. This layer should be reasonably thick.

Now add a layer of what is called 'jelly' in England and 'jello' in the States. Use a flavour that will go well with the fruits you are using. Some people mix cut fruit into the jelly/jello but others create a separate layer of fruit above it.

If you wish to keep the fruit separate, add a layer of fresh or tinned fruit now on top of the jelly/jello layer.

Now add a generous layer of whipped cream to the top of the dish, sprinkling sliced almonds on it.

Your Trifle, known as 'Zuppa Inglese' or 'English Soup' in Italian, is complete. Note that Trifle can contain any ingredients or as many layers of different sweet substances as you wish!