From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 166
A lovely old-fashioned dessert.
Another surprise was finding this recipe in Linda’s book. My grandmother would make tapioca cream, using much more milk to give it a soup-like constistency. She called it “Pünktchensuppe” (“Spotty Soup”) because the tapioca pearls would look like a lot of dots in the soup. We asked her to make this soup for us in the evenings as a light dinner or as a dessert- a memory very closely connected to my Gran.
Linda’s recipe works fine, even though I would prefer omitting the uncooked egg. If you add more milk and keep stirring the tapioca, it will turn more creamy and you do not need any whisked egg whites. For a richer dessert, try whipping some cream and folding it in the cooled tapioca.
This Tapioca Cream is great served warm or cold. While Linda suggests serving it with a dollop of jam (which is great), we had this with some “rote Grütze”, a kind of red fruit sauce typical for northern Germany and also Scandinavia.
Vegan: Use plant-based milk; I find that coconut drink with its sublte coconut flavour is a great addition to this Tapioca Cream. For a more neutral flavour with a hint of vanilla try Alpro Soya Original. Omit the beaten egg whites or use some whipped plant-based cream.