Dulce de Leche Pudding {Cooking Club}

I’m in a cooking club. Shocker, right?  I still can’t figure out when I turned into such a grown-up.

Our cooking club  just so happens to consist of 5 couples.  The first Sunday of the month, one couple hosts the cooking club at their apartment. The couple makes the whole meal for the group, and is encouraged to cook at least one thing they haven’t made before. The dinner party members bring some adult beverages. And then, we feast. Who knew grown-up activities could be so fun?

I was first up. I have always liked being first because nobody has anything to compare it to. To figure out what kind of meal I wanted to make, I decided to pick out what I wanted for dessert. And I wanted  dulce de leche. In case you haven’t had the pleasure of tasting it, dulce de leche  is a milky caramel that is just to die for. When I lived in Argentina, I ate dulce de leche every night, out of the can, by the spoonful. And I wondered why I gained the Argentina fifteen.

Anyways, dulce de leche inspired my South America themed dinner. I picked some of my favorite meals from my South American adventure and started on the dinner party prep. There was a minor vegetarian hurdle to cross, but I managed to make due. The menu was as follows:

• Black Bean and Corn Empanadas
• Beef Empanadas
• Salad
• Brazillian Moqueca

and

Dulce de Leche Pudding

Recipe from My Kind of Food

{print me!}

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 cups milk, separated
• 6 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons dulce de leche, plus more for decoration
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoon butter

Combine cream, 1.5 cups milk, and brown sugar in your saucepan, whisking over medium heat. Once it is slightly boiling, reduce to low heat and mix in the dulce de leche.

Mix the cornstarch with the remaining 1/2 cup of milk. Add to your saucepan.

Return the heat to medium. Continue to whisk while the pudding slowly thickens. Once the pudding sticks to the back of your wooden spoon, remove from heat and add in the vanilla and butter. Quickly pour the pudding into your preferred serving dishes and cover them loosely with cling wrap.

When cooled off, tighten the cling wrap and cool them in the refrigerator. If you want to decorate your individual puddings, put a little bit of the extra dulce de leche in a ziploc bag, cut a tiny tip off the corner, and use it like a frosting piper. I made some swirls and polka dots in mine, but I will leave it up to your creative imagination!