Creamsicle Barley Pudding
Creamsicle Barley Pudding
From Everyday Chef
Okedoke, 7 days later and I’m back from my birthday blogging break. Yes, it’s true, I had a birthday this past week. Not a very exciting one – the big 28. Not as scary as 29 or, gasp, 30, and not nearly as fun as 21. I wish I at least had a cool birthday recipe for you, but the fish with olive salsa that I made for lunch on Saturday was decidedly un-blogworthy, and for dinner we went out to celebrate. So for a post to honor my birthday I went through my archives and decided on this barley pudding for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I loved it, whereas John wasn’t too enthralled. It’s definitely one of those recipes that you know whether you’ll like just from reading it. Either you’re a grain pudding person or you’re not. I happen to love tapioca and rice pudding, so I wasn’t shocked that I loved this. Plus it kind of tastes like a creamsicle, which is hands down the best popsicle of all time. The other reason I decided to post it in honor of my birthday is that it’s sweet, and birthdays give me a serious sugar craving. It’s like a hypnotizing one-day event where a permanent salt craving converts into a desperate sweet tooth causing me to spend my morning looking up local ice cream shops that are open by 10am (spoiler: they don’t exist). Luckily I live down the street from one of the most amazing gourmet doughnut shops in Chicago. But if it weren’t for that, I may have found myself whipping this up instead. So cheers to yet another birthday and, more importantly, dessert for breakfast!
Ingredients
- 1 cup pearled barley
- 5/8 tsp salt, divided
- 2 cups milk of your choice, divided (we used canned coconut milk)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp grated orange zest
- 1 cup dried fruit (we used raisins)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
Preparation
- Bring a generous amount of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add barley and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook for 25 minutes. Drain barley and return to pan.
- Add 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar, orange zest and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in dried fruit and cook 10 minutes longer, uncovered, stirring occasionally.
- In a small bowl whisk together egg and remaining 1/2 cup milk. Stir a tablespoon or two of the hot barley mixture into the egg mixture to temper the eggs (temper = warm them without cooking them).
- Whisk tempered egg mixture into the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 1-2 minutes, or until thick and creamy.
- Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
- Serve warm, at room temp, or chilled. I loved it both warm and at room temp.
Serves 6.

I can’t wait to try this! What is the name of amazing doughnut shop please? Do try FIRECAKES sometime! Love the HMK blog!
Glazed and Infused! We have one right at North and Damen, and I am obsessed. The one I had on my birthday was raspberry glazed with a goat cheese cream filling. Heaven. I will definitely try Firecakes soon though!
This sounds delicious!! I also love tapioca and rice puddings!