Pudding

For convenience, chill these individual eggless custards overnight before serving. The sauce can also be made a day ahead.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Syllabub—a thick, frothy dessert made of wine, sugar and cream—originated in old England. This raspberry-topped version is served at Christiana Campbell's Tavern. Begin preparing it a day before serving.

Cooking rhubarb to the right consistency is trickier than you might think — it changes from barely tender to falling apart in a matter of seconds. Watch it carefully while it's poaching. In this recipe you’ll need to boil the rhubarb syrup to the "soft-ball stage." To determine this, just drop a small amount of syrup into a cup of cold water. If you can form it into a sticky lump that flattens when pressed, it has reached the right consistency. This technique is especially useful with small amounts of syrup, from which it can be difficult to obtain an accurate temperature reading with a thermometer.

A milk pudding that dates back to the Middle Ages, syllabub was first prepared by milking the cow straight into a bowl containing "Sille," a wine that used to be made in Silléry, in France's Champagne region. "Bub" was medieval slang for a bubbly drink. There are a number of syllabub recipes in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Irish cookbooks. This modern version calls for a sweet dessert wine and whipping cream.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Makes use of the microwave oven.

The recipe for these individual puddings comes from the Brazilian restaurant Pampas in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

An easy and scrumptious twist on the classic rice pudding from Habitation Lagrange in Martinique.

Here's a low-fat, no-egg version of panna cotta, a smooth custard from the Piedmont region of Italy. It's soothing and luscious, and requires no baking time.

"My husband isn't usually a bread pudding fan," writes Priscilla Moynihan of Vancouver, Washington, "but he loved the dried-cherry version I had at the Southpark Seafood Grill in Portland, Oregon. In fact, after he helped me finish it, we ordered another one." The restaurant prepares this dessert with house-made brioche. We simplified the recipe by using purchased challah.

Blancmange is a jellied molded pudding (similar to panna cotta) that is made with almonds and milk and served cold, often with a fruit sauce. Though it dates back to medieval times, blancmange became part of Jefferson's dessert repertoire after he encountered it during his years in Paris. Following his lead as an innovator, we made this version with pistachios instead of almonds, which gives the pudding a beautiful pale green hue and terrific flavor. Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 7 1/4 hr (includes chilling)

A cross between spoon bread and tamale pie, this flavorful, colorful side dish is a huge crowd-pleaser. Assemble it at least one hour and up to one day before baking.

An effortless way to elevate basic bread pudding is to substitute croissants for day-old bread. To keep down the cost of this luxurious-tasting dessert, check the better bakeries in your area — many sell day-old croissants at half-price.

In Italy, the panna cotta (molded cooked-cream dessert) at each restaurant was different: Some included hazelnuts; some were made with eggs and some without. Taking a few liberties of our own - most notably adding sour cream - we created the following superb rendition.

This was a recipe that came from my mother, Rae Horowitz. She told me it was from my Grandma Sade Lyon's recipe and she learned to make it from her.

It's the extra chocolate that enriches and elevates this dessert from the simple to the sublime. And it takes about 2 minutes longer to prepare than pudding from a boxed mix. What a difference 2 minutes makes.