Ingredients
Method
Steep the milk
- In a medium sauce pan bring your milk just to a simmer. Once simmering, add your tea bags and stir to make sure they are submerged in the warm milk. Cover the milk and turn off the heat, but keep it on the warm burner. Let the milk steep with the tea bags for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so. The milk will turn light purple. Once steeped, pour it into a bowl through a strainer to get rid of any loose tea leaves. Let cool for just 5 minutes.
Make the pudding
- Whisk 3 Tablespoons of the strained hibiscus infused milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl. Set aside. In a medium saucepan (you can use the same one from earlier) add your hibiscus milk, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Whisk to combine and bring to a simmer over medium heat whisking occasionally.
- While the milk heats, whisk your egg yolks together in a medium heat-proof bowl. Once the milk is simmering, slowly stream about ¼ cup of the warm milk into your egg yolks, whisking constantly. Add this mixture back to the rest of the milk mixture along with your cornstarch slurry from earlier and cook for 2-3 minutes, whisking constantly. It should thicken quite a bit in this time. It will look off in color, slightly greenish brown. This is OK, it is only a result of the purple from the hibiscus combining with the yellow of the egg yolks. Next, add your strawberry puree and cook for another 5 or so minutes, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in your butter and vanilla extract. Pour pudding into a medium sized bowl and press a piece of cling wrap onto the top of the pudding (this prevents a skin from forming). Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. The pudding will thicken during this time.
Make the cookie crumbs
- Add your ginger snap cookies to a large ziplock bag and seal tightly. Using a rolling pin crush the cookies inside the bag. You are looking for mostly broken up, but with some chunks still (look at the photo above for reference). You will need about 1 cup of crumbs. Set aside.
Make the honey whipped cream
- In a medium bowl whip the heavy cream, honey, vanilla extract, and salt with a whisk. You are looking for stiff peaks so the cream should be able to hold its shape. You can use a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment to do this as well.
Assemble the cups
- In your cup or jar (I use glass 7 oz jars), sprinkle a layer of cookie crumbs, about one loaded Tablespoon. Add an even layer of pudding, roughly 2 Tablespoons and then another Tablespoon of crumbs, topped with another even layer of pudding. Spread however much cream you want on top and decorate with flowers, strawberries, and more cookie crumbs. I like to pipe my cream using tip Wilton 1M for a fun design, but you can do whatever you want here. Repeat with the rest of your cups.
- I recommend serving these right away once assembled as they do not keep in the fridge. You can store the pudding by itself for up to 4 days covered in the refrigerator.
Notes
For the Strawberry Purée: Add about 5-6 large strawberries to a food processor and blend until completely smooth and pourable. If your strawberries will not smooth out, add a Tablespoon or less of water to help them.
Milk: Make sure you are using whole milk, not reduced fat or non-dairy alternatives. Cookies: You could make homemade cookies here but I find the hard, crunchy texture of store bought cookies works best.
Milk: Make sure you are using whole milk, not reduced fat or non-dairy alternatives. Cookies: You could make homemade cookies here but I find the hard, crunchy texture of store bought cookies works best.