Diced! Dessert Bracket: Lemon Pudding with Gingersnap and Blueberries

I announced earlier that in honor of March Madness, I decided to create a dessert bracket with 16 styles of desserts. I’ve invited 16 great chefs to each take a category and make a recipe to enter into battle. I ranked the 16 based on my view of which was the favorite and like any bracket, the favorites are matched against the lower seeds. I won’t give you my seeding because I do not want to artificially impact your choices.

I will post a pairing each week on Wednesday and Thursday and open the polls for voting. The polls will be open from Thursday until the following Wednesday (before the next pair posts). The winner of each matchup with the most votes will move on to the next round and the chef will produce another recipe for their new matchup. The overall winner will receive any prizes I can acquire. To date the winner will receive:

• Dodo Book for Cooks
• A beautiful Bamboo Cutting Board with a Butterfly Motif, graciously donated by competitor Lindy (The Kozy Nook)

This week’s pairing is:

Cheesecake vs. Pudding and Mouse

Today we have Lindy from The Kozy Kitchen Blog with her take on a pudding dessert…

Lemon Pudding with Gingersnap and Blueberries 

Using four trifle bowls:

Crush 10-12 gingersnap cookies or place in a food processor to make into coarse crumbs. Layer 1/4 cup crumbs into each trifle bowl, a layer of blueberries and then pudding. Repeat and garnish with a piece of cookie and a couple of blueberries.

For Gingersnap Cookies you will need:

3/4 cup butter, unsalted

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup molasses

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white sugar for decoration

Preheat oven to 350º F (175º C)

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and 1 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and molasses until well blended. Combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; stir into the molasses mixture to for a dough. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, then roll the balls into remaining sugar and place 2 inches apart unto ungreased cookie sheet. You will only need 10-12 of the cookies for this recipe. The remaining can be enjoyed with coffee or milk.

Bake for 9-11 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely

For Pudding you will need:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

2 1/2 cups whole milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1/2 cup lemon juice, fresh

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon lemon extract

In a medium saucepan, whisk sugar and cornstarch together. Whisk in milk until well blended. Do not put the saucepan on the heat yet.

In a cup or small bowl, whisk egg and yolk until slightly beaten, then whisk into the milk mixture in the saucepan. Heat the saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest, juice, butter and lemon extract. Put through a strainer.