~St. Patrick’s Vanilla Pudding with Meringue Dumplings~

St. Patrick’s Vanilla Pudding with Meringue Clouds(about 4 servings)

Cooked Meringue Clouds/Dumplings
2cups milk

• In a clean bowl whip egg whites until medium peaks are formed, add sugar and beat until stiff and shiny 
• Heat 2 cup of milk in a small sauce pan
• Once milk is hot drop several tablespoon of meringue into the hot milk, cook for 30 seconds, gently stir with a wooden spoon and cook for another 30 seconds and up to 2 minutes. 
• You can taste the cooked meringue, once cooked it become firmer then uncooked
• Remove cooked meringue clouds from the milk and drop them into a colander colander that is sitting on another bowl to catch the excess milk
• Continue with remaining meringue
• If you notice hot milk is about to seize while you are dropping meringue in, add a little bit of cold milk to control it.
• Set the cooked meringue clouds aside

Vanilla Pudding
3cups milk ( use left over milk from the previous step-Cooked Meringue Dumplings plus add additional milk to get 3cups)
4-5tbl sugar
2egg yolks
1/3cup milk
5tbl corn starch or potato starch
1tsp vanilla extract
1tbl butter
food coloring

• In a small dish whisk together cornstarch, egg yolks and  1/3 cup milk. Add food coloring if desired.
• In a medium size sauce pan combine 3cup milk and 4-5 tbl sugar, or to taste
• Add cornstarch egg yolk mixture and stir continuously, mixture will thicken, cook pudding, once you see bubbles, cook for additional minute or two, stirring.
• Remove pudding from the heat, and stir in 1tbl butter and 1tsp vanilla extract
• Strain pudding through a fine mesh strainer 
• Fold about 3/4 of cooked meringue clouds into the pudding

• This recipe makes about 6  – 1/2cup servings( I used a lot larger serving dishes, 1/2 cup won’t cut it for me)
• Layer each dish with berries, pudding mixture and vanilla biscuits, topping it with a reserved cooked meringue cloud.
• Let cool to room temperature or chill, best eaten slightly chilled or at room temperature
• You can make this a day ahead, make sure you cover the tops to prevent skin forming if stored in the fridge overnight.

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