Iowa Harvest Pudding

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275F convection. Also select a baking dish which holds the volume, AND is suitable to bake and serve! AND we need a sided baking tray, to hold water, in which the baking dish will be placed in the oven.
2. Add the milk, cornmeal, maple syrup and butter to a large sauce pan. This mixture is quite liquid, but trust me, it will thicken! Heat on low, stirring, until it thickens. Will take about 10 minutes. We don't want to boil the milk, so stop after stirring the thickened cornmeal for about 1 minute.
3. This is important: let it cool down to below 160F. Else adding the eggs next will curdle!
4. Lightly beat the eggs by hand. Then add the eggs slowly to the thickened cornmeal, while continuously stirring.
5. Mix in the remaining ingredients.
6. Return the mixture to low heat, stirring continuously for 2 minutes. This gives the egg time to combine. We don't want to heat it over 180F, again to avoid egg curdling. Remove from heat.
7. Pour the entire mixture into the baking dish.
8. Put the sided baking tray in the oven. Rest the baking dish in the tray. Pour in nearly boiling water to the tray, about 1/2 inch deep. This will moderate the baking temp.
9. Bake for 2 hours. A film will form on the top, it will puff up slighly, and turn slightly browner.
10. When you remove it, the mixture will appear quite jiggly, but this is ok. Let it rest. As it cools it will sink a bit, and will solidify nicely.
11. Serving while still warm is very nice! The pudding can also be served chilled. Note the chilled pudding can be re-liquified by: warm in microwave, then stir in a few tbs of milk!