Semolina milk pudding was really popular in the 1960s and 70s. I remember having it at school with a big dollop of jam in it and mixing it up until it was a pink colour. We use semolina in our house under a pizza base when cooking it outside in the pizza oven. It helps to stop the base burning. I have not eaten it as a pudding for probably over 50 years.
Tonight we had nothing made for dessert, but had lots of milk. I was looking through my cupboards to see what I could quickly whip up and spied the semolina. Mr S had fond memories of semolina milk pudding as well and so I decided to make some. The semolina I have is made from Durum wheat, but you can get semolina from other grains such as rice. It is a reasonably healthy pudding as it is full of iron, fibre, protein, magnesium and foliate. Apparently, semolina is often a product of the initial stages of flour production. It is the more nourishing parts of the grain that are ground down.
Semolina milk pudding can be eaten hot or cold. It doesn’t really reheat as it becomes more solid when it cools, but it is possible if milk is added (it might be lumpy as ours was at school. In some European countries they eat it for breakfast like a porridge. It is often served with compote or spices such as cinnamon. This pudding can be cooked in the oven or on the hob. If cooking it in the oven cook it in the same way and then place in a butter dish to continue cooking. It will form a skin on top. This is a good way to serve it when not eating it immediately as it does get thicker if left to cool, even for 5 minutes.
Ingredients
400ml of milk
30g semolina
25g sugar
few drops of vanilla essence (optional. I don’t add any)
Jam to serve
Method
- Pour the milk into the pan and heat with the sugar until it is boiling (if flavouring with cinnamon or vanilla essence, add this as well).
- Add the semolina and whisk or stir quickly for 2 or 3 minutes whilst it bubbles.
- When the pudding has started to bubble, pour it into a bowl.
- It will thicken further as it starts to cool.
- Top with a dollop of jam, some compote, or more spices.
I am trying to eat healthily and so did not add the jam. The sugar can be altered to your liking, or other sweeteners can be used eg. honey or agave. This is a fairly frugal pudding. One packet of semolina goes a long way and makes lots of desserts. The semolina I have is about 3 years old and so it stores well. Who remembers this good old fashioned pudding from school? It was often lumpy! It brought back lovely memories of my favourite dinner lady, Mrs Cranshaw, for me. She used to always give me large portions. It also warmed me up on a cold night.
Love semolina and also tapioca and rice pudding
Thanks for the recipe, I have some in the cupboard!
No worries. Thanks for commenting
I’m living in a country where semolina pudding is eaten quite often. We don’t usually add any sugar or vanilla while it is cooking, you can sprinkle sugar or mix with cinnamon and sugar on top of it on your plate.
The quite popular version is a chocolate-semolina-pudding; milk, cocoa powder and sugar with a pinch of salt and some vanilla – my twenty-something children still love it!
If you cool the pudding down and whisk it, you get foamy jelly-like pudding – this is usually not done with milk (but with chocolate-semolina pudding); you cook semolina in juice (or for example cut apples in small pieces, boil them until the liquid has most of the flavours, drain the apples, add sugar and semolina and cook it; then cool the pudding and whisk it into foamy yummyness), you can use any juice, berries, fruits, but in my opinion a bit acidic fruits work best (so like apricots are better than peaches – in my opinion). This can be eaten with milk or cream or whipped cream…
Nowadays I cook semolina pudding twice a month, once plain with milk and once the chocolate version.
That sounds nice. Thanks for the tips and for sharing
I loved semolina pudding, my mum would always make it, big dollop of jam too.Sadly it’s only me in our that will eat it now, my hubby has awful school memories lol. How many servings is the above recipe for please? Have to say Ulvmor your chocolate version sounds Devine, hubby might even like it. And I love the idea of having it for breakfast 😊
3 or 4 servings. I made half the recipe for the two of us