Semolina pudding is an old and rather traditional Dutch dessert, one that I not only used to eat myself silly at when I was a little girl—my grandmother is totally responsible for my love of semolina pudding—but I also devoured pounds of this yummy stuff during my pregnancy. Heck, I even dreamed of semolina pudding with berry sauce for 8 months straight—my pregnancy was much shorter than it should have been. My pregnant days are long over, but the love for semolina pudding stayed. And it might just become infectious after you’ve tried this recipe.

Here’s a slightly more adult version. A delicious semolina pudding with rum soaked raisins drizzled with a non-fat cinnamon sauce. Slightly sweeter than my usual recipes, but this I absolutely enjoy for the sake of childhood memories.

Ingredients:

Rum soaked raisins:

1/2 a cup raisins
1/3 cup brown or dark rum

Semolina Pudding:

1/4 cup semolina (slightly heaping)
2 cups whole milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar

Cinnamon sauce:

1 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp corn starch

Directions:

I love the font they’ve used for this bag. Did I mention I’m a font-o-holic? Anyways, get 1/2 a cup of raisins and plunge them in a heat-proof bowl.

Add 1/3 cup brown or dark rum to the raisins. And here comes my shortcut: put them in the microwave and nuke them for 45 to 60 seconds on high. That’ll get the soaking process going alright. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave them be for a few hours, preferably overnight.

 

 Note: Did I mention this is no kid-friendly dessert? On second thoughts, they might sleep pretty darn good after a few bites of these.

The raisins will have soaked up all the rum. They’re delicious, like little rum bombs that pop in your mouth.

On to the semolina pudding, it’s really easy and fast. Pour 2 cups whole milk in a sauce pan and add 1/4 tsp vanilla extract. Bring the milk to a boil.
 

Break out the semolina. Measure a slightly heaping 1/4 cup.

Add 1/4 cup of sugar and the semolina to the milk. Stir well and let the pudding simmer over low heat for 3 minutes. It will thicken quite a bit in those few minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the rum soaked raisins. There’s your pudding.

Divide the pudding over 4 smaller or 1 larger lightly greased pudding form. This is a very rich dessert, so don’t make the portions too big. Refrigerate the pudding for several hours before serving it.

Time for the sauce. This is about as simple as it gets, no cream or butter is used. Pour 1 cup whole milk into a sauce pan and add 1/4 cup sugar (scant) and 1/2 a tsp cinnamon. This is a rather sweet sauce, so feel free to go easy on the sugar. Bring the milk to a boil.

Measure 1 tbsp cornstarch and add 2 tbsp of the hot cinnamon milk to it. Stir until it’s a lump-free concoction.

Gently pour the cornstarch milk into the saucepan while whisking vigorously. Make sure you keep whisking or it’ll get lumpy. Let the sauce cook down for a minute or 3, let it cool off and run it through a sieve before serving it, just to make sure there’s not a single lump in there.

As much as I usually dislike sweet foods and desserts in general, somehow I’ve always had a major weakness for these kind of old-fashioned desserts. Grandma knew what she was doing alright. Bless her heart, spirit and the cook book she left me.

Kay’s Recipe Card

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