A Recipe for a Non-Surprise

With a grand effort I could probably find something intelligent to talk about, but in its absence I might as well share the latest evolution of a recipe for "pudding surprise." (I pronounce the "surprise" with a pseudo-French accent but that is, of course, purely an affectation.)

First of all I should own a debt to Aunt N., who used to make pudding surprise for us children when we came over every Saturday back in the early '90s. The constant in her recipe was the pudding and the sherry-soaked biscuit at the very bottom, generously soaked, but I think she enriched it with sliced bananas and other improvised ingredients too.

Since I don't know exactly what she did, and other ingredients are at hand here in Germany, I've turned the recipe into something like this. (The optional steps are in italics.)

1 package ladyfinger biscuits
1 jar cherries (Sauerkirschen/Schattenmorellen)
4 pkg. vanilla or chocolate pudding
+ ingredients listed on package (milk, sugar)
1 pkg vanilla sugar, or regular sugar
sherry
bittersweet chocolate or cocoa powder or both

Prepare the pudding as described in the instructions on the package; you could add a teaspoon or two of cocoa powder to the recipe. Since the milk takes so long to heat the rest of the pudding surprise can be prepared in the meantime.

First, drain the cherries, reserving the juice.

Then, neatly lay out as many ladyfinger biscuits as desired on the bottom of a large dish (I prefer a glass bowl); because of the dimensions of our bowl I put in two layers and there are always some left over.

Carefully pour over the sherry enough to wetten the entire surface of the biscuits, and after that add as much and let as much splash down into the bottom of the bowl as you like. (To prevent the alcohol from evaporating too much, I put a large plate over the bowl, but I doubt this makes a difference.)

Then I spread all of the drained cherries over the biscuits, and pour over enough of the juice to ensure that the biscuits soak well.

After that I sugar the cherries to concentrate the flavour; if you have a package of vanilla sugar you might as well use up the whole thing, otherwise I refer the question of quantity to the individual cook's excellent judgment.

When the pudding is finished, I pour it over the biscuits and cherries. The last time I made it I stopped part-way through, laid down another layer of ladyfinger biscuits, and then poured on the rest, but this is of course entirely optional. The biscuits are less dense than the pudding so they eventually rise to the top like a baleen whale surfacing from the briny deep, unless ingeniously soaked or weighed down for instance by cherries, but last time I didn't care.

Lastly I chop the chocolate (what I did last time is to leave it in the plastic packaging and vigorously whack it crosswise with the back of a heavy carving knife so that it fractured into little pieces, before taking it out) or spoon the cocoa powder into a sieve, or both, and distribute it lightly but evenly over the pudding. This is a trick to prevent a tough skin from forming; it isn't 100% effective but it's still helpful.

I like to eat and serve it hot.

The End.