Tapioca Pudding

I had bought the wrong type of tapioca pearls for the boba tea recipe, and we had milk in the house (a rarity) for the same boba tea, so I looked up a recipe for easy tapioca pudding, and I found this one from the Downshiftology food blog. Kudos to the author for such a quick and easy recipe.

What you’ll need

• 3 cups whole milk
• 0.33 cups honey or maple syrup (maple syrup is clearly better!)
• 0.5 cups small-pearl tapioca, but not instant “minute tapioca”
• 2 large eggs
• 1t vanilla extract (other flavors would work well, too)
• 0.25t kosher salt

What to do

Whisk the milk and maple syrup in a medium saucepan then heat the mixture over medium heat, bringing it to a simmer.

Stir in the tapioca pearls to the milk/syrup and reduce the heat to a low simmer. Cook for 10 – 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mixture has thickened a bit and the tapioca has fully softened. Note that the ultimate cooking time will depend on the brand of tapioca you use.

Whisk the eggs, vanilla, and salt in a medium, heat-proof bowl. While continuously whisking, very slowly pour about half of the hot milk mixture into the bowl. The eggs will curdle if you pour too fast, so go slow.

Return the tempered egg mixture to the saucepan and stir over low heat until the pudding has thickened. Note that the pudding will continue to thicken as it cools. Add the pudding to serving bowls and refrigerate until chilled though. To prevent a skin from forming over the top of the pudding as it cools, mix the pudding in its serving bowls after it’s been in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes.