Vanilla Puddin'

We have never eaten a lot of pudding in this house. It has just never really been at the top of our yummy list. I do enjoy it though - it is creamy and thick and sweet - I may have to eat it a little more often. What's more, is that you can make a lot of great desserts using pudding. A lot of trifles and layered no-bake desserts use pudding and they are all so good!

I have used boxed vanilla pudding for cookie and cake recipes before and I never will again! There is so much junk in there. I think I'll eat my pudding in its pure form as just pudding.

This recipe came out really really good. We all ate it for dessert the night I made it. Since we made it with whole milk and eggs I felt good about Gavyn getting some nutrition in his dessert. It didn't keep all that great though. It was OK the next day, and then it started to separate a little bit, and then it turned kind of runny. So this needs to be used or eaten pretty quick.

I used a Martha Stewart Pudding recipe because I really wanted to use eggs. There are plenty of recipes out there that do not use eggs though. I also played around with trying to use flour instead of cornstarch, but I knew the cornstarch would probably work better and in the end, the two probably contribute the same amount of processing into the mix.

I didn't stray from the recipe at all. As with most things, I was surprised at the ease. You basically just put all the ingredients into a pot and heat it up. You wait until it starts to bubble, and then stir it for a minute and then you are done! It has to cool completely before serving. It thickens up a little more in the fridge as it cools.

You can make all kinds of pudding by adding cocoa powder for chocolate, and different extracts for other flavors.

All the dry ingredients - I used raw sugar

Whisk in all the wet ingredients

Heat it up to a bubble

Cool and Serve!

Vanilla Pudding

Ingredients

• • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (if making chocolate pudding)
  • 2 1/2 cups milk
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl; set aside. In a medium saucepan, off heat, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt. If making chocolate pudding, add cocoa powder. Very gradually (a few tablespoons at a time) whisk in milk, taking care to dissolve cornstarch. Whisk in egg yolks.
2. Whisking constantly, cook over medium heat until the first large bubble forms and sputters. Reduce heat to low; still whisking, cook 1 minute. Remove from heat; immediately pour through sieve into bowl. Stir butter and vanilla into hot pudding.
3. Place plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding (to prevent skin from forming); chill at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Before serving, whisk pudding until smooth; divide among four serving dishes.