Pudding is a kind of food that can be either a dessert or a savory dish. The word pudding is believed to come from the French boudin, originally from the Latin botellus, meaning "small sausage", referring to encased meats used in Medieval European puddings.
In the United Kingdom and some of the Commonwealth countries, the word pudding can be used to describe both sweet and savory dishes. Unless qualified, however, the term in everyday usage typically denotes a dessert; in the UK, pudding is used as a synonym for a dessert course. Dessert puddings are rich, fairly homogeneous starch- or dairy-based desserts such as rice pudding, steamed cake mixtures such as Treacle sponge pudding with or without the addition of ingredients such as dried fruits as in a Christmas pudding. Savory dishes include Yorkshire pudding, black pudding, suet pudding and steak and kidney pudding.
In the United States and some parts of Canada, pudding characteristically denotes a sweet milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, instant custards or a mousse, often commercially set using cornstarch, gelatin or similar collagen agent such as the Jell‑O brand line of products.
In Commonwealth countries these puddings are called custards (or curds) if they are egg-thickened, blancmange if starch-thickened, and jelly if gelatin based. Pudding may also refer to other dishes such as bread pudding and rice pudding, although typically these names derive from the origin as British dishes.

The friand is a small French cake, often mistaken for the spelling "friend". It is popular in Australia and New Zealand.
The principal ingredients are almond flour, egg whites, butter, and powdered sugar. It typically has additional flavorings such as coconut, chocolate, fruit, and nuts. It is baked in small molds, typically oval or barquette in shape. It appears to be related to the financier, though it differs in being larger and not using brown butter.
The French word friand, which means dainty or a gourmet who delights in delicate tastes, refers as well to minced meat and herbs in puff pastry, a food item unrelated to the baked items called friand or financier.

A palmier (French for "palm tree"), pig's ear or elephant ear is a French pastry in a palm leaf shape or a butterfly shape, sometimes called palm leaves, cœur de France, French hearts, shoe-soles, jalebi or glasses.
Palmier are made from puff pastry, a laminated dough similar to the dough used for croissant, but without the yeast. Puff pastry is made with alternating layers of dough and butter, rolled and folded over to create possibly hundreds of flaky layers. The puff pastry is rolled out, coated with sugar, and then the two sides are rolled up together so that they meet in the middle, making a roll that is then cut into about 1⁄4 in (6 mm) slices and baked. Usually it is rolled in sugar before baking. In the Puerto Rican version, it is topped with honey. In Mexico they are known as orejas (ears).
An arlette is a cinnamon-flavoured palmier biscuit.

Hot water crust is a type of pastry used for savoury pies, such as pork pies, game pies and, more rarely, steak and kidney pies. Hot water crust is traditionally used for making hand-raised pies.
As the name suggests, the pastry is made by heating water, melting the fat in this, bringing to a boil, and finally mixing with the flour. This can be done by beating the flour into the mixture in the pan, or by kneading on a pastry board. Either way, the result is a hot and rather sticky paste that can be used for hand-raising: shaping by hand, sometimes using a dish or bowl as an inner mould. As the crust cools, its shape is largely retained, and it is filled and covered with a crust, ready for baking. Hand-raised hot water crust pastry does not produce a neat and uniform finish, as there will be sagging during the cooking of the filled pie. This is generally accepted as the mark of a hand-made pie. It is possible, however, to bake the pastry in a mould, as with other pies.
The pastry is often used to make pork pies, and the pastry allows a wet filling to be held in.