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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Stir in dried fruit and cook 10 minutes longer, uncovered, stirring occasionally.
4. 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).
5. Whisk tempered egg mixture into the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 1-2 minutes, or until thick and creamy.
6. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
7. Serve warm, at room temp, or chilled. I loved it both warm and at room temp.

Serves 6.