4 Levels of Pudding: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

hi i'm onika and i'm a level one chef hi i'm beth and i'm a level two chef hi i'm frank i'm a chef instructor at the institute of color education and i've been a chef since the beginning of time so today i'm making banana pudding i'm going to take instant pudding cream cheese heavy cream milk bananas everybody always wants to judge the instant part but let me tell you something it's going gonna be instantly delicious today i'm gonna make chocolate pudding with homemade whipped cream and chocolate shavings all over the top just feels like a big hug chocolate and banana pudding are kind of those ones that everyone craves it's the gold standard but today i am going to make a coconut panna cotta with a mango jelly and a pandan foam sounds fancy right i'm going to start by baking the base for the pudding you know you got to have the baseline like the drum beat this is the drum beat of the pudding we're going to start with this cream cheese we're going to start off at level one like i am so put my cocoa powder in this bowl my cornstarch and just a pinch of salt a little bit of salt makes everything taste better yep i like to mix all the powdered ingredients together first so that there are no lumps i'm going to make the mango gelate and a mango chili is basically mango puree with a little bit of sugar in it that gets set with gelatin we're hydrating the gelatin so that it'll melt into a smoother mixture the mango delay is going to give us a little acidity that's going to kind of counterbalance the coconut panna cotta and the foam we're going to take our condensed milk look at that it looks like blessings oh look at she she's so pretty hey girl something about this just feels like i'm doing some good work today now i have to separate my eggs and i'm going to combine the sugar and the egg yolks just on medium high speed the sugar is being completely incorporated with the yolks now look you got you got to move your hips with it i'm going to add my cocoa powder cornstarch and salt take my gelatin sheets and i'm going to just stir it in until my gelatin melts just to give it a little more brightness i'm going to add some fresh lime juice always use fresh juice please don't use juice out of a bottle now you have your instant pudding don't tell nobody i'm like oh my gosh she cheating no i am not cheating i'm using banana cream pudding and french vanilla because you know how the french do the french make everything a little bit more like genesis whatever it is a lot of people might think because i'm a chef i don't like the mix or the box pudding i don't bash on it at all because it's a really good convenient food now that our base is ready we're gonna heat the milk if you're gonna eat chocolate pudding eat chocolate pudding whole milk is the answer but who's just adding cold milk no no no no so now what's next this is marshmallow syrup but don't tell anybody i'm a little little suspicious of the marshmallow serum i'm like what's in that you'll never know you'll never know just a little suspicious now that the mango has the lime and the gelatin in it i'm gonna put it into my glass and this measuring cup is gonna make it easy to get it right down the center and not get it on the sides now all i have to do with this is put it in the refrigerator and let it set when this is set fully we can put our coconut panna coat on top now i'm going to turn on my mixer and slowly add the milk because we want to make sure that we don't overwhelm it you're going to stir it until it gets nice and thick oh no no no oh you won't mess up my good outfit this process requires patience but it's so worth it to start the panna cotta we're going to add our cream our coconut milk and our sugar to the pie i'm making a coconut panna cotta and i chose coconut because it's one of my favorite flavors when i'm making pudding that means chocolate pudding banana pudding is way better than chocolate pudding chocolate pudding is the favorite of my husband my sons my grandsons you want to keep your burner on medium heat okay i can feel it on the bottom it's starting to get gloppy and you're going to think this is a big mistake you want this gloppy stuff now take it right off the heat and i'm going to keep stirring lots of elbow grease the cream is hot i'm going to shut my heat off i'm going to get my gelatin sheets now we're going to slice up our bananas like extremely thin because you don't want chunks of bananas it's banana pudding you got to put some bananas in it this is how you trick them to think it's from scratch we're gonna bump it up with lots of flavor cut some of our dark chocolate usually you use an ounce i always use a little more got our butter vanilla a little extra decadence with our heavy cream and then i'm gonna strain it in case there's any little bits in there straining the pudding makes everything smooth and luscious and it's just a beautiful way to present it i just have an ice bath here and i'm going to chill it to about just below body temperature okay this is the part where your patients need to kick in it's going to be worth it take your time okay this blender done a number on my arms but this is going to be amazing we're going to leave the pudding room temperature wrap with a little plastic wrap put it in the refrigerator until it's set so it can nama stay and get his chakras right and then it's going to come out and it's going to show out now for the toppings so i'm going to start with my vanilla wafers it's definitely not a banana pudding without some nilla wafers i want to get the prettiest ones these are the ones that's going inside the pudding and a couple of them are going to get demolished now i'm gonna make my pandon foam pandan leaf is common in southeast asia so we're using leaves we're making pudding right it has a very popcorn or a grassy note to it you'll see it used in a lot of desserts i'm not an expert on southeast asian flavors but as a chef i constantly like to experiment with new ingredients and this is fairly new to me and i just think it's wonderful we're going to take the half and half and the sugar and bring it to a simmer i'm gonna make homemade whipped cream you could definitely buy whipped cream if you want to make your own whipped cream more power to you i don't have that kind of time my grandsons love to lick the beaters and you can't do that with store-bought whipped cream this is where you're going to take out your aggression take your little hammer i'm going to use these as sprinkles on top of my whipped cream our half and half and sugar has come to a simmer i'm going to get my pandan leaf and i'm just going to kind of cut it into strips we're going to let it steep like a tea for a few minutes first my heavy whipping cream goes into the bowl as soon as it gets a little frothy i'm going to put in powdered sugar vanilla while this is steeping i'm going to add my lime zest you don't want to keep on rubbing it over the white spot you just want to get the green and that's it keep moving on the pandan leaf has been steeping for about seven or eight minutes and i'm gonna puree it it's gonna give us a nice green color and it's gonna add to the flavor at this point we're gonna add our xanthan gum what the xanthan gum is gonna do is it's gonna thicken our mixture it's gonna hold those bubbles and it's not gonna deflate right away so now for our bananas you want your bananas really thin we strained our pandan and now what we're gonna do is we're gonna ice it down it's gonna stay nice and bright green as long as we ice it down i'm gonna put it in this siphon get it really tight you're gonna hear the gas go in so this can go directly in the fridge and before we plate we'll take it out to get our foam fresh homemade whipped cream takes a second absolutely worth it i'm going to do a little young coconut but we just want to peel off all of the husk you'll notice on the coconut there's kind of three little ridges here you take the the corner here and you give it a little whack and then you can get your cleaver in there and crack it open and scoop this out into the bowl and i'm just going to do a little dice same thing with the mango so here are all the toppings for my pudding i think we're ready to plate it up now it's time to build this baby up let's start with the chocolate pudding nice heaping portion our panna cotta is done and it's really nice and wiggly we're going to start with a little bit of the cream and then i'm going to start layering my cookies our homemade whipped cream of course you leave the bowl of whipped cream on the table so that once you finish this amount of whipped cream you can add more pudding banana cookie this needs to chill for about four hours so i'm gonna go out conquer the world and by the time that i'm finished it's going to be ready i have my pandan foam so i like to use whipped toppings because it just takes a dessert to the next level we're just going to put a few little pieces of our young coconut on top and then a little bit of our mango some chocolate shavings right over the top and this is my banana pudding and this is my chocolate pudding [Music] and this is my coconut panna cotta with mango gillette and pandan foam this is the part i've been waiting all day for when you're eating this you have to be sure you get a little bit of everything in each bite you got some cookie you got pudding you got the cream delicious yup the consistency of the pudding is amazing the crunch of the topping just brings it all together when i tell you this is amazing this is an amazing banana pudding the chocolate pudding is smooth luscious the whipped cream is not too sweet so it's a nice balance with the chocolate it's heavenly everything really marries well together the foam you kind of get a hit of that in the beginning and then you get a little that melty coconut and mango there are those that would add all kinds of exotic flavors not for us the demino's like unadulterated chocolate pudding you got to have a little fun sometimes and kind of go out of your comfort zone quitting is so comforting and delicious with so many options let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs onika didn't have to cook her pudding because she used a mix of instant pudding bases combined with milk as the base of her pudding instant puddings are convenient products that include instant starches which are commercially modified starches made by cooking corn starch and water then cooking it further on a drum dryer the advantage is that you can add instant starches directly to mixes and they won't form clumps when they're hydrated i have no idea how pudding sets to answer onika's question when the bonds in starch molecules are broken by heat or agitation as in an instant starch water enters and combines with the starch fractions causing a thickening this is called gelatinization as it cools or rests over time it forms a solid gel beth's pudding was mainly thickened by egg yolks the cornstarch stabilizes the pudding this type of thickening requires heat and cooking eggs form gels based on the amino acid sequence present in the protein chain heat allows the protein chain to unravel and liquid becomes trapped in this network causing increased viscosity calcium from the milk enhances this mechanism frank's panna cotta is coconut milk and heavy cream thickened with gelatin which is an animal based protein made from the hydrolysis of collagen a protein found in connective tissues of hives of animals such as hogs perfect panna cotta should be firm with a very slight wobble ensuring that you haven't added too much gelatin so that you don't end up with milky jello he added the jelly as a separate layer a smart way to add the intense mango flavor without having to mix it into his panna cotta directly it's going to brighten it up it's going to give us a little bit of sweetness as well onika used a store-bought whipped topping which is based on hydrogenated plant oil some light cream and corn syrup beth made a hand whipped cream whipped cream is an air in water foam air cells are surrounded by a film of fat droplets stabilized by proteins it's essential to use very cold cream so that the fat globules will come together takes a second absolutely worth it frank made a topping by steeping fresh pandan leaves in a half and half and sugar mixture so we're using leaves okay pandan or screw pine is a tropical plant that imparts grassy floral nutty and vanilla flavor notes frank used a whipper to turn this mixture into a foam the whiffer relies on gaseous nitrous oxide to create tiny bubbles in the liquid under pressure when released it resembles airy whipped cream he also added xanthan gum which is a hydrocolloid hydrocolloids are polysaccharides or chains of carbohydrates that form gels when combined with water the final result was a light green velvety topping that was perfect with the coconut and mango flavors in his panna cotta no matter how you make it pudding is versatile and delicious next time you're making this comforting dessert we hope you'll use some of these tips from our three amazing chefs

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 492,738

Keywords: 4 levels, 4 levels of pudding, banana pudding, banana pudding recipe, best banana pudding, best chocolate pudding, best pudding recipe, chocolate pudding, chocolate pudding recipe, easy banana pudding, easy chocolate pudding, epi, epicurious, epicurious 4 levels, homemade pudding, how to make panna cotta, how to make pudding, make panna cotta, make pudding, make whipped cream, panna cotta, panna cotta recipe, puddin, pudding, pudding recipe, whipped cream recipe

Id: RnshAyqsuXs

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 11 2021