Nothing spells comfort like a creamy, warm pudding. They are one of the easiest desserts and also the most satisfying. The word pudding is known to have originated from the French word, 'boudin’, which means 'small sausage'.

This was probably a reference to encased meats that were used in Medieval European puddings. While puddings can be sweet or savoury, our taste buds drift towards the sugared and the sticky. Over time, the word pudding has been used to typically denote a dessert.

To make a perfect pudding, here are few things that you must keep in mind to get it right, always:

A pudding is easy to make but it requires your full attention, from batter to baking or chilling.

While cooking the pudding you need to constantly stir it to avoid lumps or burning.

The flavours, texture and consistency is very adaptable, so don't be afraid of experimenting.

Make sure you sieve the flour properly because no matter how much you whisk, if the flour is not smooth it will give you a lumpy texture.

If you want to store it, cover it with a plastic wrap to avoid the formation of a layer. In fact, while chilling pudding too, you should keep them covered.

For baked puddings, grease the tin with butter and then refrigerate it for few minutes. This will form a layer and avoid it from sticking to the base.

Here are the top 3 most popular puddings in the world.

1. Panna cotta, PIEDMONT, ITALY

Simplicity at its finest, this softly set pudding takes almost no effort to make yet is nothing short of amazing! Even though panna cotta (lit. cooked cream) wasn't mentioned in Italian cookbooks until the 1960s, today it is considered a traditional Piedmontese dessert, and the original recipe calls for only whole cream, sugar, vanilla, and gelatin. When made to perfection and properly chilled, panna cotta is silky smooth, deliciously creamy, and has a gentle wobble to it. For a slightly lighter version of this scrumptious dessert, use half-and-half instead of heavy cream, or simply dilute heavy cream with milk.

2. Pudim de leite condensado, BRAZIL

This traditional Brazilian dessert is a type of creamy, caramel-coated custard flan. Although there are as many variations on the dessert as there are families in Brazil (and throughout Latin America), the standard ingredients of pudim de leite condensado include sweetened condensed milk, regular whole milk, eggs, and sugar. To make the custard, the condensed milk mixture is typically poured into round molds or cake pans that have been coated with a simple caramel sauce, before it is baked in a water bath until it’s become firm and set. According to popular belief, this simple dessert is thought to have evolved from an old Portuguese dish known as pudim de priscos, an invention that has been attributed to a certain Portuguese priest named Manuel Joaquim Machado, also known as Father Priscos.

3. Budino, ITALY

The Italian word budino refers to a range of sweet and savory dishes that come in a number of different forms, shapes, and flavors. There are three main types of budino: crème caramel made with cold ingredients and cooked in a mold in a bain-marie; crème anglaise made by cooking the ingredients in hot milk and transferring them into a mold; and the savory Italian flan variety. Even though the final result of these processes are all quite similar, it is difficult to nail down what a true budino is. Most varieties, excluding the savory type, are made with a base of eggs, milk, and sugar, yet some variations might also use rice or ricotta to form the foundation of a budino.