Tapioca Pudding

Okay fine, everyone thinks it's gross, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't taste yummy. In fact, I know one person who would agree with me and ate most of it. It turns out that my new cooking m.o. is to cook with so much dairy that I cannot feasibly eat what I've created. Oops.

So tapioca is actually kind of more complicated than I had thought.

First day/Part 1
1/2 c dried tapioca balls
2 c H$_2$O

Soak the tapioca in the water overnight. Okay, that part isn't that hard.

Part 2
2 1/2 c milk
1/2 tsp

Drain the excess water off of the tapioca. This is harder than it would seem. In a double boiler, heat the milk until it's no longer cold and then add the salt and tapioca. Heat until small bubbles appear at the side and then turn the heat wayyyy down until it'll basically keep the mixture warm. Cover and cook for an hour.

Part 3
2 eggs (separated)
1/2 c sugar

Separate whites and yolks and set the whites aside. Take out the albumen from the eggs, for pete's sake (I know no one does this and this means that I'm anal as hell, but still... eww). Beat the sugar and yolks together. Add a bit of the milk+tapioca mixture to the eggs and mix in the bowl. You have to do this in order to ensure that the egg mixture isn't cold when it's added to the hot milk mixture because then you'll have sugar-y scrambled eggs (I hate flan). After mixing the egg and hot stuff to regulate the temperature, add the entire mixture to the double boiler and turn to medium heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. It takes 10ish minutes or so.

Part 4
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract

Now take the egg whites and beat them until they're stiff and then gently fold into the tapioca mix and then stir in vanilla.


I had the fortune of not only not having a double boiler, but also having the world's crappiest sauce pan. It's okay, though, because the pudding actually turned out really well and I was all proud of myself because it was the first time I had made pudding that wasn't instant. It also turned out to be way too lactose-y but fortunately, one of my friends couldn't chew on anything, so he ate most of it and has yet to keel over from it.