Vanilla Biscuit Pudding

This is the vanilla version of our beloved chocolate biscuit pudding. If you like your desserts super sweet, you’ll probably need to add a few tablespoons of sugar in step 3.

Ingredients:

• 100 grams white chocolate (we used Lindt)
• ½ cup full cream milk (to mix with corn flour)
• ¼ cup corn flour
• 2 ½ cups full cream milk (for the pudding)
• 1 can condensed milk (380g)
• 1 ½ tbsp. salted butter
• 1 cup full cream milk (for soaking the biscuits)
• 2 tsp. vanilla essence
• 1 Marie biscuit packet (400g)
• 10 finely chopped almonds (optional)

Instructions:

1. Chop half of the white chocolate thinly and set aside. We’ll be using the other half of the chocolate later on in the recipe, so keep it in the fridge till then.
2. Combine ½ cup full cream milk and ¼ cup corn flour in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Add 2 ½ cups full cream milk, condensed milk, butter (and sugar if you are using) to a large pot. Heat the mixture on medium heat while stirring until everything is well combined.
4. Add the corn flour and milk mixture to the pot along with the thinly sliced white chocolate (you’ll have to give the corn flour and milk mixture a quick mix before pouring it into the pot). Cook the mixture while stirring until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. For us this took around 12 minutes. We had to lower the heat a bit towards the end. Switch off the stove and add the vanilla essence. Mix to combine.
5. Add 1 cup full cream milk to a container.
6. Dip the Marie biscuits into the milk, one at a time to soak them. Be careful not to soak them to the point that they break, we only need to make the biscuits slightly soft.
7. As you remove the biscuits from the milk, arrange them in the tray or whatever container you are using, to form the first layer. You might need to break some biscuits to make sure the entire bottom of the container is covered. (We used a 22 cm square tray and were able to get three layers, so our instructions are for a pudding with three layers. You might need to make adjustments based on the size of container you are using.)
8. Spoon a third of the vanilla mixture over the first layer of biscuits.
9. Dip the biscuits into the milk one by one and arrange them inside the container to make the second layer.
10. Spoon a third of the vanilla mixture over the second layer of biscuits.
11. Repeat the steps of dipping and arranging biscuits and spooning the vanilla mixture over it to make the final layer.  
12. Thinly slice the remaining white chocolate and sprinkle it evenly on top of the pudding. Sprinkle the finely chopped almonds (or any other nut) too.
13. Refrigerate until the pudding sets, ours took around three hours.