When Lucas got his wisdom teeth extracted a few weeks ago, I knew I'd spend the weekend nursing him back to health - making sure he was comfortable, stopping residual bleeding, keeping him medicated, capturing video of the funny things he said, and bringing him soft foods. I used it an excuse to turn my kitchen upside down, covering every surface with pots, pans, and ingredients, just to make the whole experience a little more enjoyable. For me, anyway; I don't think anything could have made it more fun for him...except maybe not having his wisdom teeth taken out. I promised you there'd be more puréed, mushy, creamy, smooth, or silky foods to come and I wasn't lying. Now featuring: salted caramel pudding.
Let me first back up to tell you why my 27-year-old husband was just now getting his wisdom teeth out. In December, Lucas left his 9-5 job as a product developer for a well-known lifestyle technology accessories company to join the volatile start-up world as the first employee of a budding company. Director of Engineering. When their Kickstarter is live, I'll share more details, but for now, I'll tell you that their first product aims to help parents provide healthy lunch options for their kids. Yup, that's right, he's in food-related products now. Cue my excitement.
This career shift meant that his comprehensive health insurance from his old job would expire at the end of December. Not knowing what kind of independent coverage he'd end up with in the marketplace, he scheduled about a week's worth of appointments to get all caught up on check-ups by the new year. At which point he discovered his wisdom teeth were making their way toward the surface and, at some point, likely in the next year, he'd have to get them extracted once they erupted. We could wait until this happened, if it happened...or play it safe and take them out while he had decent dental insurance. We chose the latter and rushed to get a December appointment.
I spent the 4 days leading up to his appointment dreaming up how I'd spend my culinary marathon weekend. When I asked Lucas for input on his favorite soft foods, mashed potatoes was his only request. I suggested salted caramel pudding, and he looked at me with distaste, "I really don't like pudding." With the idea already solidified in my head, I, of course, ignored him, knowing I'd eat it all myself if he turned it down.
A few months ago, I won a giveaway for a few jars of Spoonable Brooklyn's saucy salted caramel from Heart of Gold, and I've hung onto it to use it for something special. Begging for an excuse to use it. I'm all for making homemade caramel sauce (as you. can. see.), but what if I could make a recipe that much simpler with some pre-made gourmet salted caramel? Plus, no risk of accidentally burning a batch when you get distracted by a kitty rolling around begging for pets on the kitchen floor.
This stuff is what I imagine angels eat while they sit around on puffy while clouds discussing whatever it is that blissful angels talk about. Guess what? Lucas's aversion to pudding is reserved only for store-bought pre-made or boxed pudding. He's all about homemade pudding. Salty, sweet, smooth, creamy, custard-like caramel pudding with a dollop of whipped cream on top. I don't think he realized how many cups he'd gobbled up because when it was all gone the next day, he was pretty disappointed. After making two batches of salted caramel rice krispy treats, there's one more jar left that's getting turned into this salted caramel pudding sometime this week. As if I don't have enough holiday sweets sitting around...
Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups whole milk
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 5 large egg yolks
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup salted caramel sauce, plus 1-2 tablespoons for drizzling, slightly warmed so it's smooth
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup powdered sugar, or to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
Salted caramel pudding
- In a small cup, whisk together the cornstarch and ½ cup of the milk until smooth, and set aside.
- Heat the remaining milk in a small pan over medium heat, until just simmering. Remove from heat.
- Whisk the egg yolks in a large heat-proof bowl.
- Whisk in about ½ cup of the hot milk into the egg yolks to temper them. Gradually whisk in the rest of the hot milk.
- Whisk in the cornstarch mixture.
- Slowly whisk in 1 cup of caramel sauce.
- Return the custard to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, continuously whisking, until it thickens and a candy thermometer reads 175°F, about 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Whisk in the butter and vanilla.
- Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve and divide it among 6 small ramekins. Refrigerate until cool, about 4 hours.
- Pipe dollops of whipped cream on top of each pudding and serve, drizzled with extra caramel sauce.
Whipped cream
- With stand mixer or by hand, beat heavy whipping cream until it begins to froth, a couple of minutes.
- Add powdered sugar and continue beating until soft peaks form.
Veronica -
Oh My this is what angels would eat! I have heard of salted caramel cake but not pudding! I love pudding and this looks so heavenly! Thank you for the recipe! Hope Lucas is doing better!
Sheri -
This does look yummy! I love salted caramels!
dina -
omg this looks amazing!
Sarah Menanix -
Thanks! Now I think I know what I'm doing with my afternoon....
Chris @ Shared Appetite -
I technically should probably be in bed right now (waayyyy past my bed time), but then I checked my inbox and saw this post. Salted Caramel Pudding. Oh my, I need this in my life immediately! It looks SO good!
Sarah Menanix -
If you make it late a night, it'll be ready in time for breakfast. Ha!
Kristine @ Kristine's Kitchen -
Salted Caramel Pudding?! If only I had a dish of this right now. Topped with fresh whipped cream, this looks absolutely perfect.
Sarah Menanix -
Thank you! I want to kiss the first person who ever thought about putting salt with caramel - brilliant.
Joel A. -
This is a perfect treat. Caramel... Sweet and ...Salty!! I would love to indulge in these anytime. This is my kind of thing.
Sarah Menanix -
I'm completely convinced now that salt totally enhances the flavor of sugars. I'm gonna try it as a trick to reduce the sugar content of some recipes and see what happens!
Coco in the Kitchen -
What a good Mrs you are, Snix!
BTW - tea bags stop bleeding - Mom's trick, works great.
These look sinful. Gotta make them.
Don't forget to enter in my foodie GIVEAWAY!!! xo
Coffee and Crumpets -
These looks absolutely delicious! These would be want I want if my teeth were coming out, and I'd take the mash potatoes too.
Alanna -
Oh. Wow. This looks absolutely incredible, and the perfect application for some leftover caramel sauce I have in the fridge. All over it! Thanks for sharing this beautiful recipe!
Sarah Menanix -
Thanks! I totally made another batch with my leftover caramel too:)
Kristi @ My San Francisco Kitchen -
Poor thing! I will never forget that horrible experience :( WOW this pudding looks incredible! Yum yum :)
Amy Endemann -
This dessert is my heaven. Great blog BTW!
Sarah Menanix -
Aw - thank you so much, Amy! *blush*
Jim Collier -
How about evaporated milk in place of the while milk?
Sarah Menanix -
I've never tried cooking with evaporated milk before, but I've seen a few recipes that say you can substitute evaporated milk in place of whole milk 1-to-1 for a creamier thicker texture. Others say if you want to get the same consistency as whole milk, you'll want to dilute it, by using half evaporated milk and half water. Again, I've never tried this though! Please let me know if you try it and what the results are so I can share with others! Thanks for the question!
Sarah Menanix -
My friend also suggests reducing the sugar just a tad as the evaporated milk tends to be a bit sweeter than whole milk! Good luck!
Karen -
I just tried this at a restaurant for our anniversary dinner. I thought salted caramel gelatto was the best but the pudding topped that. Such comfort food. I took very small bites as I wanted it to last forever. So yummy....had to come home and look up the recipe. Cannot wait to try yours.
Rosemarie Ramos -
Feb. 2021 - OMG what an awesome recipe!! I tried to give you five stars, but for some reason am unable to. I googled "salted caramel sauce" and made this the day before. I followed the directions in this recipe to the letter, and I was successful the very first time! Thank you for sharing!
Sarah Menanix -
Aw - thank you so much for coming back to leave a comment! I'm so glad you loved itI And your review came through too - thank you! (sometimes it doesn't show up right away due to caching) <3
Kat -
Hi,
I have regular caramel sauce but no salted..Can I just add salt to the caramel sauce and wonder what amount of salt to add..
Thank you
Kat
Sarah Menanix -
Yes - absolutely. I would start by folding in 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the caramel, then adjust to taste!