Pawpaw Pudding
(Recipe from NYT Cooking)
(From Serious Eats) ~ Pawpaw trees, the largest edible fruit trees native to North America, produce greenish-blackish fruit, usually three to six inches long. The flesh is pale to bright yellow and contains a network of glossy, dark brown seeds. A pawpaw’s flavor is sunny, electric, and downright tropical: a riot of mango-banana-citrus that’s incongruous with its temperate, deciduous forest origins.
Pawpaw tips:
Ripe pawpaws only last for two or three days at room temperature. They do well in the refrigerator for about a week if fully ripe. To extract the pulp, halve the pawpaws with a knife and squish them with your bare hands through a colander set over a large bowl. It oxidizes quickly, so when storing pawpaw pulp in the refrigerator, stir in a little lemon juice and keep the air out by pressing plastic wrap directly on the surface. The pulp is best used within a day. Pawpaw pulp freezes well in a Ziploc bag for up to six months.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup(1 stick) butter, melted and slightly cooled, plus more for baking dish
- 2 cups sugar
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups (1 pound) pawpaw pulp
- 1½ cups whole milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Lightly sweetened whipped cream, for serving
Directions:
-
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking dish.
-
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
-
In another large bowl, whisk together eggs and pawpaw pulp until smooth. Whisk in milk and vanilla. Whisk in melted butter. Pour into sugar mixture and stir only until combined.
-
Pour batter into prepared dish. Bake 50 minutes or until just set in the center. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack before cutting. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.
