Tapioca cream pudding
Instructions:
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Tapioca is a starch obtained from the cassava root, a tropical American shrub. Tapioca is available in little round balls or ground into a coarse granular form that cooks more quickly and is the easiest to use. Although it is not always mentioned, I like to mix quickcooking tapioca into the liquid in which it will be cooked and allow it to stand about 15 minutes before cooking. Tapioca thickens a pudding by swelling and becoming transparent. It continues to thicken while cooking. A tapioca-thickened pudding should be stirred while cooking, but overstirring while cooling tends to disrupt the tapioca particles, resulting in a sticky, gelatinous mixture.
- 11⁄2 tablespoons quick-cooking or minute tapioca;
- 2 cups milk;
- 1⁄3 cup sugar;
- 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten;
- 2 egg whites;
- 1 teaspoon vanilla.
- Sprinkle the tapioca over the milk in a heavy saucepan. Let stand 15 minutes to soften.
- Place over low heat. Stir and heat until mixture just comes to a boil. Add half the sugar to the egg yolks. Pour a small amount of the hot mixture into the yolk mixture. Transfer both mixtures to the top of a double boiler, and cook 5 minutes longer. Cool.
- Whip the egg whites with the remaining sugar and vanilla until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the pudding. Cover and chill.