Cherry Pudding & Hot Sauce

This cherry pudding is technically a cake-style pudding, the kind of dessert that lived in church cookbooks and grandmother’s recipe boxes long before social media existed. The batter bakes into a tender, cinnamon-scented cake studded with canned cherries, then a quick hot sauce made from the reserved cherry juice gets poured over each warm serving.

The by-hand instruction matters more than it sounds. Stirring with a spoon rather than a mixer keeps the cherries whole and prevents overdeveloped gluten. Mixed by mixer, this batter turns dense and rubbery; mixed by hand, it stays light and tender with intact cherry pockets.

The hot sauce is brilliant in its simplicity. Reserved cherry syrup, sugar, and flour cook together into a glossy spoonable sauce. Almond extract added off the heat ties everything together. Almond and cherry are botanical cousins (almonds are stone fruit pits, just like cherry pits) and the flavors echo each other so naturally it tastes almost amaretto-like.

Butter stirred into the sauce at the end adds richness and gloss. Don’t skip it.

Pro Tips

• Use tart canned cherries (red sour cherries in water), not maraschinos or sweet cherries in heavy syrup. The acidity balances the sweet cake.
• Don’t overbake. A toothpick should come out with moist crumbs, not clean. Overbaked pudding turns dry and won’t drink up the sauce.
• Serve immediately with the sauce hot. Cooled, the sauce thickens to a paste and the cake stays merely sweet rather than glorious.

Variations

• Swap canned cherries for fresh pitted cherries when in season. Use ½ cup of water as the sauce base.
• Add a tablespoon of Kirsch (cherry brandy) to the sauce for a boozy lift.
• Top each serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for hot-cold contrast.