Pudding or not pudding? – Mini pudding à la mangue, noix de coco et brioche au caramel

I am not sure this can be called pudding, but a friend of mine came for dinner some time ago and I served her this as a dessert, and she said with enthusiasm “Oh Silvia! j’adore ton pudding!!”, so I figured she must knew what she was talking about and decided to call this a pudding. Is it a pudding, technically speaking? I don’t know.

I am not really a sweet tooth (I’m sure you are doubting this statement due to the quantities of desserts I made lately) but I do enjoy fruit based desserts like this one…and do take great pleasure to make them maybe even a little bit more so than eating them. The great thing is that I have the sweetest, kindest, and most adorable neighbors anyone can dream of, who happen to have a passion for desserts and sweets, so that is the perfect world. I bake, they eat. Everyone is happy. Actually I haven’t baked too often recently, but I promised them I will. I am always delighted to please anyone and more so someone I really appreciate, like my neighbors.

Those are small bites, so you can serve about two or three each, they’re light and always a pleasure to have a after a heavy meal. I think no matter how heavy a meal is, something sweet needs to be served, even if it’s fruit. We have a saying in French” Il faut toujours laisser une petite place pour le dessert” (you always need to leave a small space for dessert) but I know, the size of the space depends on the sweetness of your tooth!

I had a lot of mangoes and a whole coconut that needed to be used, but this dessert works with other fruits as well, like pineapple, peaches, and pears too! Any fruit can be combined to coconut which to me is like a magic ingredient. If you don’t have a whole fresh coconut, the dried one works fine. I also made brioche again, so instead of just eating it for breakfast, I used it in the pudding. Try a pudding with brioche instead of the bread, the texture is softer, and I just love the idea that I am biting in a slice of brioche instead of bread. Muffin silicon molds would be perfect for those bites

So if you don’t live on the Islands like me, but feel like taking a trip there, you can start with this dessert, the coconut and mango will definitely give you that feeling.

Ingredients for 6 mini puddings

  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tbs sugar
  • 7 tbs coconut milk
  • 2 oz milk
  • 3 tbs shredded coconut(fresh or dried)
  • 1 tbs rum
  • 3 slices brioche
  • 1/2 mango, peeled and cut in small slices
  • 5.20 oz (or 150 g) sugar for the caramel

Preparation

In a mixing container, mix eggs, sugar, coconut milk, milk, shredded coconut (or coconut flakes), rum.

Cut brioche slices in rings about 1 cm thick and the size of your mold.

Start making caramel. Let sugar melt in a pan at medium heat and let it brown to desired color (do not burn, the caramel will be dark and bitter).

Divide the caramel in the molds, add mango slices, then brioche and pour egg mixture. Fill to the top of the mold.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F until the top of the brioche is golden brown (about 20 minutes)

Remove from the oven, let them cool. Flip puddings over (with the mango slices on top) and serve at room temperature with vanilla or caramel ice cream.