As a child I often made the pudding recipes in the Betty Crocker cookbook. My mom always had two copies of the book so she could photocopy pages that got too covered in batter, and she kept drawings by me and my sister pressed between the pages. She gave me one of those copies, and I bought myself a second copy as well. I normally made the chocolate recipe, but I decided to combine that with the butterscotch and also add some Amarena cherry syrup. This syrup is dark and tastes like cherries, as opposed to maraschino syrup which (unless you get the fancy kind) is red and tastes red. Since the substitution instructions are incomplete in the linked recipe, here is a list of the ingredients I used:

• 2 cups milk
• 2/3 cup brown sugar**
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch*
• 1/8 tsp salt*
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder*
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla*
• 1-2 Tbsp Amarena cherry syrup

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First, since my brown sugar had hardened into large rocks, I put it in the food processor with an unopened bag of brown sugar until it was almost completely powder. Then I mixed all the dry ingredients, the milk, and the cherry syrup and brought the mixture to a boil.

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That gets boiled for one minute, then half is mixed into the egg yolks (I saved the whites for later), then the egg yolk mixture goes back into the pan to boil for another minute. After that, I add the vanilla. The pudding has to chill in the fridge for a few hours, until it sets.

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*store-bought/gifts

**my old roommate left 2 boxes of brown sugar in my cupboard