The other day I made a sweet potato pudding. Coming from a reputable source, I was excited to try it out. I was also excited about the “healthful” qualities it had–no white sugar or white flour. What could go wrong?

Maybe it is the tail end of my cold that wreaked havoc on my taste buds or maybe it was the fact that I tried to go even more healthy (very unlike me by the way) by substituting half of the brown sugar with maple syrup. Whatever it was, this pudding just didn’t do it for me. It came out bland and not sweet enough–I was disappointed.

Andrew, on the other hand, really liked it. Sometimes we have really different tastes for things. He tends to be a bit more picky than I and he will offer me his honest opinion when I ask for it. He has become a great meter for flavors and foods that I could go either way on which has been incredibly helpful for me to discern particular flavors in things. I may have exposed him to a lot of different dishes, but he has helped refine many flavors for me. I have a tendency to get so swept up in the whole process of making food that when the final product comes about and I am still in glow-mode from cooking, things can taste better to me than they actually are. So when he looked at me and said he really liked this pudding (and he’s not an over user of grammatical intensifiers either), I decided to share this recipe with you all.

There are two types of tasters in the world: purists and adders. I definitely fall under the “adder” or laboratory scientist when it comes to cooking, where as Andrew tends to like things a bit more simple and straight forward. And I don’t blame him–his taste for fresh, two to three main ingredient foods has really made me rethink about my tendency to add a teaspoon of this extra or a whole other ingredient(s) all together in a dish. He likes to discern and really taste what he’s eating, not necessarily a mash-up of things that come out as a dish. I have learned that I too like this–and it makes approaching the openness of cooking (as opposed to the fairly strict boundaries that baking has) feel much more doable.

This is not to say that I don’t still add a pinch of this or a splash of that to things when I am doing things–a lot of times my food making comes through instinct. But I do feel much more at ease when I have a recipe to follow. It gives me boundaries that I can choose to stretch, or not. There are those dozen or so recipes that I’ve been making for years and would no way no how need a recipe for them–but when in new gastronomical territory–a recipe becomes like a map. Sometimes discovering things off the map can be greatly rewarding. Other times when led astray, it just gets you lost.

Finding a new food combination is the ultimate in intuitive thinking with the senses and I have a lot of respect for the recipe creators who do this all the time. I feel like the Queen of the Kitchen when I’ve come up with a new recipe on my own–it is so satisfying! So, I re-imagined this recipe as I would like it and have included it below the original. Some days I need less taste-stimulation and more straightforward and simple foods. Other days, I crave spice and lots of different tastes, flavors and textures. Which way do you prefer most often?

The Purists Sweet Potato Coconut pudding
via Culinate via Debora Madison
The pudding definitely has a texture not that far off from pumpkin pie, which is nice.

Pudding

	2	cups cooked sweet potato, from 1½ lbs. sweet potatoes
	1	can (14 ounces) coconut milk (1¾ cups)
	2	tsp. vanilla
	3	eggs
	⅞	cup dark muscovado sugar or organic dark sugar
	¼	tsp. salt

Topping
1 cup heavy cream lightly whipped with flavored rum to taste

Instructions

If you haven’t sweet potatoes already cooked, chop them into large pieces and steam until tender, about 30 minutes. Peel, then coarsely mash.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put a kettle of water on to boil for the bath.

Purée the cooked sweet-potato flesh in a blender or food processor with the remaining pudding ingredients until smooth.

Pour the pudding mixture into a 2-quart baking dish. Set it in a larger dish and add the boiling water to come halfway up the sides. Bake until the pudding is firm, 45 to 50 minutes.

Before the oven cools, toast the coconut shavings on a sheet pan until crisp and golden, just a few minutes.

Once the pudding has cooled, whip the cream and flavor it with the rum. Mound the cream over the pudding, cover with the toasted coconut, and serve.

The Adders Sweet Potato Coconut pudding
via moi

2	cups cooked sweet potato, from 1½ lbs. sweet potatoes
1	can (14 ounces) coconut milk (1¾ cups)
2	tsp. vanilla
3	eggs
1	cup dark muscovado sugar or organic dark sugar
¼	tsp. salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cardamon (or a little more)

Follow instructions above.

Cheers!