My mom mentioned the other day that her mom used to make cornstarch pudding so I decided to try it. Wow! It is great and I know exactly what is in it so I feel better about eating it. Surprisingly, vanilla pudding does not need to be yellow - that is just the artificial coloring added to the store bought pudding. It's amazing what we take for granted when we buy pre-made mixes. I used a recipe from allrecipes.com however I changed it as I made it. Here is my recipe:
Flour Girl's Pudding Recipe
2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1 /2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. butter
Mix all dry ingredients in a stainless steel saucepan (including cinnamon if you want). Add the milk and whisk until dry ingredients are dissolved. It is very important that you dissolve cornstarch into cold liquid. If you heat the milk first, you get lumpy pudding. Heat and stir until mixture is thickened but not boiling. To test thickness, dip a metal spoon into the pudding and if it sticks nicely and doesn't slide off, it's done. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla extract. I always use real butter. Pour into serving bowls. Enjoy warm or chilled.
Next time I will try adding some cocoa to the dry ingredients to make chocolate pudding. If you try adding anything dry like cocoa, make sure you add it at the beginning or it won't mix in well later. If you make this, I'd love to hear what variations you do.
For everyone looking for a bargain, making the pudding mix from scratch costs about 20 cents (not counting the cost of the milk).
This sounds delicious! I can't wait to try it. And, seriously, why do I buy a mix for this?
ReplyDelete-Danielle
Danielle - You buy a mix for the same reason I did - because that's what we have always done. Now we know better! :)
ReplyDeleteOhhh, do we EVER know better!?! I made chocolate pudding tonight, and it was amazing! I left the cinnamon in it, and that really added to it. When Landon was a toddler and still drinking whole milk, I would make pudding to use up the last of his milk and get him to gobble it up. As I was tasting this amazing pudding tonight, I felt immense guilt that I made his pudding from mixes. Ansley will be getting the good stuff with the last of her whole milk when she starts drinking it. :)
ReplyDeleteNext on the agenda: butterscotch, which is Tom's favorite. If you find a great recipe for it, I'd love it. I'll be on the look out too!
Thanks, as always, for sharing!
-Danielle
Recipe Note: this recipe makes the equivalent of a small 3 oz. box of vanilla pudding. I used the recipe (minus the milk) for Amish friendship bread which calls for a large box so you just need to do this recipe times 1.5.
ReplyDelete