Better than the Box - Chocolate Pudding

July 16, 2015 By

This post was originally published in 2009. Better Than the Box Chocolate Pudding One of my main goals on this blog is to prove to anyone who doesn’t believe me that cooking healthy foods from scratch is neither difficult nor time-consuming. Too many people think that cooking is either a great mystery they could never solve, or so time-consuming they would always be stuck in the kitchen. Instead, they rely on boxes (or bags or jars, or packages, you get the idea) that are quick and easy, but expensive and chock-full of unnecessary and unhealthy ingredients.

There’s a better way!

You don’t have to be a gourmet and spend hours over your creations in order to serve healthy delicious meals to your family. So throw away the box and make something from scratch for a change. If I can do it, you can do it!

For example, chocolate pudding. For a long time, I never even ate pudding because I didn’t want to use the mix found in a box, but I thought that home-made pudding was too time-consuming and difficult. Then my diet was forcibly changed because of my son’s allergies: there were so many foods I couldn’t eat, that I began to think outside the box (literally!) for foods that I could eat. I thought I had kissed chocolate good-bye for a while, until I found an allergen-free recipe for chocolate pudding. And I realized that it was so quick and easy, I could make it any time I needed a chocolate fix.

Once I discovered that, I branched out and made all kinds of pudding: butterscotch, vanilla, coconut, etc. I used them to make trifles and parfaits for desserts to serve to guests. And the best part was, it was every bit as easy as using a box!

But not as QUICK, you say. Almost as quick, I say. It took me approximately 10 minutes, start to finish. Anybody can find 10 minutes in their day to fix themselves a chocolate treat!

I thought home-made pudding was hard, but it’s actually quite EASY. What makes it difficult is using an egg, because the egg(s) has to be tempered, or gradually heated so that it doesn’t cook before it’s thoroughly mixed in. That problem is easily avoided by not using an egg! You’ll find most pudding recipes require an egg, but as I discovered, vegans and food-allergic folks know that pudding without an egg is every bit as good. An egg adds richness to pudding. So if you want your pudding a little richer, go ahead and fuss with the egg. But if you just want some pudding, forget the egg. You won’t miss it!

It’s CHEAPer than buying the box. I bet you don’t believe me because those boxes are pretty cheap. Aside from the milk (which is not included in the box anyway), the ingredients in this chocolate pudding cost less than $0.40, even if you don’t buy them on sale.

It may not be HEALTHY, but it’s certainly healthier than what’s in that box. Have you ever looked at the ingredients? Sugar, modified food starch, cocoa, disodium phosphate, natural & artificial flavors, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, monoglyceride, diglycerides, Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Artificial Colors, citric acid, BHA. Yum. I don’t even know why they need all those food colorings, because, as Matthew McConaughey says in “The Wedding Planner”, “Chocolate’s already brown.”

Have I convinced you yet?


Already Brown Chocolate Pudding
1/3 cup raw sugar
2 TBSP cornstarch
2 TBSP cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups milk
1 oz baking chocolate
1 tsp vanilla

In a saucepan, whisk together the dry ingredients:

Slowly whisk in the milk (this keeps the corn starch from clumping):

Stir constantly over medium heat until boiling. Continue to stir for another minute or so, until it begins to thicken. This is actually the trickiest part. If you take it off the heat too soon, it won’t gel at all, and you’ll be left with a sort of semi-solid milkshake instead. And if you leave it on the heat for too long, it will be a little too solid, and you’ll need to eat it with a fork! What you want is something in the middle. Just keep in mind that as it cools, it will continue to solidify.



Once it’s reached the right consistency, remove from the heat and add the 100% chocolate bar and vanilla. At this point, you can get creative and try adding different things. For example, chocolate chips instead of the chocolate bar. Or different flavorings instead of vanilla. I have also used a mixture of coffee and milk to make a mocha pudding. Mmmm, that was yummy.

Pour the pudding into serving dishes and place in refrigerator to cool. If you plan on serving to guests, you may want to consider placing some plastic wrap tightly on the surface of the pudding while it cools to prevent a skin from forming. I don’t bother when it’s just for myself, or if I’m going to stir it up and use it in something else. Garnish as desired:

Better Than the Box Chocolate Pudding Sharing at Try a New Recipe Tuesday

 

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Maca Mocha Smoothie

March 19, 2012 By

Regular guest contributor Nancy, from Real Food Allergy Free, brings us today’s post,

with a delicious-looking smoothie recipe… plus information about how maca increases a women’s wellness!

Maca is a tuber root (similar to potato) grown high in the mountains of Peru. Though it’s been used medicinally in Peru for thousands of years, it’s just recently gaining popularity in the US. Since its Women’s Wellness Month here at Quick and Easy, Cheap and Healthy, we will focus on how maca root benefits women.

Maca root is a super-food that is packed full of nutritious goodness. It’s loaded with over 60 micronutrients, 18 amino acids and 20 fatty acids. Maca is 40% potassium, 10% calcium and contains vitamins A, B, C, D, E, B12, B1, 2, 3, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, silica and zinc.

It is believed that maca is most beneficial because of its effect on the endocrine system. Maca is an endocrine modulator and the

endocrine system includes all of the body’s glands and the hormones they secrete. Hormones regulate many, many things including tissue function, mood, growth and sexual development.

Here are some of the ways maca can help women:

  • Sometimes called Peruvian ginseng, maca increases energy and provides mental clarity.
  • Maca helps to regulates hormones which can alleviate PMS and perimenopause symptoms.
  • Leveled hormones lead to less mood swings and better emotional health.
  • Also called nature’s Viagara, maca is known as an aphrodisiac, increasing libido.

Maca has a very strong smell and taste. It is somewhat malt like, so I find a chocolate based smoothie is the best way to get it down. This Maca Mocha Smoothie is my favorite.

Maca Malt

Maca Mocha Smoothie

Ingredients:

  • 1 Banana, frozen
  • 2 tsp Cocoa Powder
  • 3 tsp Maca Root Powder (buy it here)
  • ¾ cup Vanilla Coconut Milk Beverage or Dairy Milk

 

Directions:

  1. Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth. Add sweetener if necessary.

*********************************

Nancy is a God fearing, family loving, and homeschooling mom to four. You can find her at www.RealFoodAllergyFree.com where she shares her family’s favorite recipes and money saving deals for foods that are free of the top 8 common food allergens (egg, dairy, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish, peanut, tree nut).

Hearth & Soul Hop

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Secret Recipe Club: Brazilian Chocolate

March 5, 2012 By

Brazilian Chocolate #diycoffeeshop

Welcome to the March edition of the Secret Recipe Club (Group A), the part of the show where the bloggers sing write about each others’ recipes (which they have secretly been testing on the sly).
My secret assignment this month was none other than our host for the week, The Heritage Cook. Jane, the heritage cook, is the one who keeps our Group A organized and ready to go every month. (Thanks, Jane!) Jane is passionate about eating local, organic and seasonal food, which appeals to me, as you can imagine. She has tons of recipes, and she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to the kitchen, so go check out her blog and be inspired!

My absolute favorite feature over at The Heritage Cook is Chocolate Mondays! Monday is bad, but Chocolate Monday? Good. Very very good.

So of course, I had to choose one of her delicious chocolate recipes; I simply had no choice! One of her more recent Chocolate Monday posts caught my eye because it featured not one, not two, but three chocolate drink recipes! You could take your pick of Orange Chocolate Ice Cream Shake, Copacabana Milkshake, and Brazilian Chocolate Drink.

Brazilian Chocolate #diycoffeeshopI went with the Brazilian Chocolate drink because:

  • It was hot and I was cold.
  • The other two had ice cream. I was cold.
  • And I didn’t have any ice cream.
Excellent choice, if I do say so myself! Brazilian Chocolate is kind of like a mocha in reverse: instead of a little bit of chocolate added to coffee, it’s a little bit of coffee added to chocolate. Either way works for me - those two are a match made in heaven! - but I think this Brazilian Chocolate drink would probably appeal even to die-hard coffee haters. The addition of strong coffee doesn’t really add any extra flavor, but it does bring out the chocolate flavor in a delicious way.
Really, the only change I made to the recipe was that I scaled it down for an individual serving. Sadly, my DH does not share my obsession with either chocolate or coffee, and my Certain Little Someone is allergic to milk. Baby Boy is too young for chocolate and coffee. So I just made one little delicious cup all for me. Ahhhhhh…
Oh, and the original recipe does not specify what kind of chocolate to use, but all I had was semi-sweet, so that’s what I used. If you use darker chocolate, you may need to add a bit more sugar or other sweetener.

Recipe: Brazilian Chocolate

Summary: from “Chocolate” by Jean Pierre Wybauw

Ingredients

  • 1 oz chocolate
  • 1/4 cup strong coffee
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1-2 tsp raw sugar (or a few drops of stevia)
  • 1 TBSP whipped cream
  • cocoa powder for garnish

Instructions

  1. Place the chocolate in the bottom of a large mug. In a small pot, bring the milk and sugar just to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour the milk over the chocolate, stirring until melted. Add coffee.
  2. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkling of cocoa powder.
Brazilian Chocolate #diycoffeeshop


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Cupid Shots {Mini Chocolate Mousse with Strawberry Filling}

February 6, 2012 By

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, and as usual, my mind turns to thoughts of chocolate. Chocolate daydreams and Valentine’s Day just go together perfectly, no matter your age.

And so do chocolate and strawberries. Especially when they’re in cute little shot glasses! These will be a hit with adults and kids alike, and of course, true to form, they are so easy.

You will need the little plastic shot glasses if you want them to be in this cute little miniature form. I found mine at the Dollar Tree and thought it a worthy investment for such cuteness.


Cupid Shots

Ingredients

Strawberry Layer

  • 2 cups strawberry puree
  • 2 TBSP honey
  • 1 TBSP corn starch (or tapioca starch)
  • 1 TBSP water

Chocolate Mousse Layer

  • 265 grams semi-sweet chocolate (not chocolate chips)
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 TBSP sugar

Instructions

For Strawberry Layer:

  1. Pour strawberry puree into a pot; stir in honey, and bring to a slow boil. Mix together the starch and water, and drizzle into strawberries, stirring all the while. Continue to simmer and stir until thickened (about the texture of jam). Cool slightly, then pour into shot glasses, filling about 1/3 of the way. Place in refrigerator to cool.

For Chocolate Mousse Layer:

  1. Prepare an ice water bath by filling a bowl with cold water and ice. Place a larger bowl on top, making sure the bottom touches the ice water.
  2. In a pot over medium heat, combine the chocolate, water, and sugar. Cook until the chocolate melts, stirring occasionally.
  3. Immediately transfer the chocolate mixture to the bowl over ice, and beat with an electric mixer until it creams and thickens into a mousse consistency. Spoon over cooled strawberry layer. Serve immediately.


Notes:

  • You’ll probably have extra strawberry filling; no worries, you will certainly find another use for it!
  • You can use this chocolate pudding recipe instead of the mousse (more kid friendly if that’s what you’re going for). You will have to allow the pudding some time to chill and set, so keep that in mind.
  • To make the strawberry puree, I thawed frozen strawberries and ran them through the blender. You can strain it at that point if you want it really smooth, but I didn’t.
  • You can top this off with some whipped cream (yum!).
  • I used corn starch because I was completely out of tapioca starch, which is my preferred starch. I’m pretty sure it will work just as well with the tapioca, but you may need more of it.
  • Boxes and bars of baking chocolate typically have the grams noted right by the ounce measurements. This takes about two and a half of the large baking bars.
  • These really need to be served immediately. The mousse just doesn’t keep well. (In the pictures, you can see how the mousse has hardened and looks “burnt” on top. It tastes fine, but the texture is not like mousse at all!)
This is not super QUICK, but it’s not super time-consuming either. I don’t remember exactly how long it took me, but it was less than an hour (including cooling time for the strawberry layer).
It’s very EASY, though, even the mousse. I’d never made chocolate mousse before and I thought it might be complicated, but it was actually quite simple.
The chocolate is not CHEAP, I’ll admit. I didn’t buy mine especially for this, though, I used some that I bought in after-Christmas sales, which made it cheaper than it would have been otherwise. And I used strawberries that had been frozen from strawberry season last year.
It’s a lot HEALTHY-er than the average Valentine’s treats you’ll see popping up everywhere. There’s not a ton of sugar in this recipe, which makes it a great choice! And it has the added benefit of some vitamins from the strawberries, as well as the antioxidants from the chocolate. (My favorite thing about chocolate, of course.)
Sharing at Katherine Martinelli’s, and…

Hearth & Soul Hop Works for Me Wednessday realfoodallergyfree Photobucket

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Hot Chocolate Granola

January 11, 2012 By

When the weather gets cold, I like nothing better than to curl up with a cup of hot chocolate. It warms me up, down to my bones, but it isn’t very filling. So I turned my morning granola into the same heart-warming flavor, except that in granola form, it actually fills me up.

The great thing about granola is that it is such a super-duper flexible recipe. Most of these ingredients are easily switched out for something else, if you don’t happen to have that specific item on hand. I’d keep the 2 cups of oats for the basic structure, but the other grains are all interchangeable. Any kind of puffed or flaked cereal will work, or better yet, nuts and seeds! (We avoid all nuts and some seeds around here because of allergies and whatnot.) Wheat germ or oat bran can replace the flax seed, and I imagine chia seeds would work as well (although I’ve never actually worked with chia seeds, so could be wrong on that!). Any kind of oil will work, but I particularly recommend olive or coconut oil. Maple syrup or some other sweetener can replace the honey; just keep the volume the same.

Hot Chocolate Granola

Ingredients

  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 1 cup steel-cut oats
  • 1 cup puffed rice
  • 1 cup puffed millet (replace the puffed cereals with nuts or seeds if desired)
  • 1/2 cup ground flax seed
  • 1/4 cup cocoa
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup olive or coconut oil
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • dash salt

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, stir together the liquid ingredients. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry, and stir until thoroughly coated and well blended.
  2. Pour the mixture in an even layer on a cookie sheet. Bake at 225F for a couple hours, stirring at least every half hour, until desired crispiness is achieved. Cool to room temperature than store in an airtight container.
  3. Serve over milk or yogurt. Top with berries for a delicious treat!


Granola is QUICK enough that I make a batch every other week (or every week if we go through it very quickly). It’s certainly a QUICK breakfast once you’ve got a batch made: just as quick as cold cereal.

Stir and bake: it’s that EASY.

Making it yourself is so much CHEAPer than buying storebought granola. In my experience, store-bought granola costs at least several dollars a pound for the cheapest varieties and rarely goes on sale. Plus, who knows how long the box has been sitting on the shelf; it’s doubtful that it’s fresh!

Granola makes a pretty HEALTHY breakfast if you augment it with some protein and a serving or two of fresh fruit. It’s got complex carbs that give you energy to face your day!

Sharing at Tastetastic Thursday, Katherine Martinelli’s, and…
It's a KeeperMiz Helen’s Country Cottage

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SRC: Triple (Yes, Triple!) Chocolate Banana Cookies.

December 5, 2011 By


As Raina of Connor’s Cooking says, “With this name, who wouldn’t want to make it?!” Not me! Or me. However that grammar goes. Point being, I wanted to make it!! So I did.

Welcome to another round of the Secret Recipe Club(Group A), folks! This is where we pick bloggers’ names out of a hat (digital style) and secretly cook up something from their blog. Meanwhile, some other merry blogger is secretly cooking from your blog, which makes Reveal Day (today!) so much fun. Definitely the highlight of my blogging calendar!

So in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I was assigned Connor’s Cooking for my secret blog this month, and had fun perusing Raina’s blog looking for the perfect recipe to try. Just like me, the kitchen is her favorite place to be, and it shows in the large quantity of recipes to browse through. Once I came across the words “triple chocolate“, though, there was no turning back. Chocolate is part of my creed. I refuse to believe anything except that chocolate is healthy, so don’t even try to tell me otherwise. Something so good must be good for me. Right?

Unfortunately for me, I had only one precious little egg sitting in my refrigerator when I set out to make this recipe, and I didn’t want to use it up in cookies. Weird, yes, but hear me out: I like to buy pastured eggs from a local farm, and those little babies cost over $4 a dozen! One does not use such pricey beauties casually! I prefer to eat them straight as part of a meal, and look for egg replacements whenever possible in my baking.

And replacing an egg is so much easier than you might think, which I have learned in the past couple years of baking egg-free (and dairy-free and wheat-free) goodies for my Certain Little Someone. I’ve got a few tricks tucked up my sleeve that keep me baking, egg or no.

The trick this time is banana. Banana goes so well with chocolate that it’s a perfect choice for an egg replacer in a recipe like this. I also decided to take Raina’s advice and double the recipe - double the triple chocolate sounded good to me!

One little problem: I forgot to double the sugar. Oops. The flavor wasn’t too bad, but I think additional sugar would have helped with the texture some. So I have kindly given you the appropriate amount of sugar in the following recipe.


Triple Chocolate Banana Cookies

from Connor’s Cooking

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup palm shortening
  • 1 cup raw sugar
  • 1 banana, mashed
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup vanilla chips

Instructions

  1. In a mixer, beat together the butter, shortening and sugar until creamy. Add banana and vanilla, beat until well blended.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa, and salt. Stir into liquid ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips.
  3. Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes.


By the way, for the vanilla chips, I used Trader Joe’s brand, which is actually made with real milk, unlike other brands who essentially have created a chemical cocktail and called it “white chocolate”.

This is a great QUICK cookie recipe, just in time for these crazy holidays!

It’s also very EASY; nothin’ fancy goin’ on here, which is just how I like it.

Pretty CHEAP, over all, especially since I cheated on the egg!

HEALTHY-ish. It does have whole wheat flour, which is a plus. And a banana (although there is nothing unhealthy about an egg, so it’s not like that’s much of an improvement on the health scale). And, ummmm, well, that’s about all I can say for it. Enjoy in moderation, ‘K?



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What’s a Birthday Without Cake?

May 19, 2011 By

There’s still time to enter the East Coast Eco Bakery giveaway! Win some yummy delicious treats for your own celebration… or just because! And no guilt, because they’re made with healthy ingredients.

Thanks to Kristina of Icing and Crumbs, we don’t have to find out. She is the honored guest at my party because she is bringing the cake! Well, at least the recipe. And what a cake! Chocolate Mud Cake. I’m definitely going to have to try this one because chocolate and I are like *this* (imagine my fingers twisted tight).

Friends, ice cream, cake, chocolate. My birthday is complete!

(Note: Before Kristina gets started, let me just say you really need to check out her blog. She starts each post with a quote from a children’s book, story, song or poem. Having been a kindergarten teacher in a past life, and currently mom to little munchkins, I have a soft spot in my heart for children’s books, especially good quality ones that employ beautiful language and ignite the imagination. Kristina’s blog feeds little tummies… and little minds!)

“I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a freshtry, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewherebehind the morning…”
(Joseph Priestly)

A friend of mine posted some pictures of her birthday recently… a day spent outsidehiking on Black Mountain… the skies clear, the air crisp, surrounded by family andfriends… and a beautiful birthday cake. To me, this looked like the perfect birthday –recognising a special day by connecting with nature and feeling part of it’s freshness– a new start for another year.

It often amazes me how much energy my young daughter puts into planning her nextbirthday… for the last ten months she has been discussing her party – who is coming,what games they’ll play, how many candles she’ll have, and which cake she’d like.We have been playing “birthday parties” and making mud cakes in the yard; we havebeen singing Happy Birthday and creating pretend invitations… For kids, birthdayscreate extra excitement – a special day full of friends and presents… but I think as weget older, we realise that the real present is the gift of a new day – a fresh start… achance to grow from there.

But no matter how old we are, or how we choose to celebrate our birthday, there isalways cake… The recipe below is great to make with kids – they can help measurethe ingredients, sift the flour, and mix everything together… they will also offer to lickthe bowl!
(This recipe has been adapted from one found in a book several years ago.)

Chocolate Mud Cake

You need:

375g (13 1/2 ounces) butter, softened

1 1/2 cups of brown sugar

3 eggs

2 cups of plain flour, sifted

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

2/3 cup of cocoa powder, sifted

200g (7 ounces) of dark chocolate, melted

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 cup of sour cream

You do:

Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius (320 degrees F). Grease and line the baseof a 22cm round springform tin. Cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is lightand fluffy. Add the eggs and beat well. Mix in the chocolate. Gently fold in the flour,baking powder and cocoa powder. Stir in the milk and sour cream. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hour or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave thecake to cool in the tin.

This cake is lovely on its own, or it can be iced with a dark chocolate ganache, andthen served with cream or ice-cream.

And while the cake is baking, there is time for a story… A Birthday Cake forLittle Bear, by Max Velthuijs, is a humourous tale about a group of friendsworking together (sort of) to make a cake for Little Bear’s birthday… or Moira’sBirthday, by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko, about a young girl whose birthday party plans go a little bit too far…

Kristina blogs about sharing her love of cooking and reading with her children at Icing and Crumbs.

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Dessert for Two

February 9, 2011 By

My favorite way to celebrate Valentine’s Day is to pull out all the stops and make a delicious as-close-to-gourmet-as-I-ever-get meal that’s more expensive and indulgent than our usual fare, and to finish it off with an amazingly impressive and definitely chocolate dessert. I like to wait until the kids are in bed, light the candles and dress the table for an elegant, intimate meal.

Not that I get to do that every year. Sometimes life intervenes, like this year. We will be traveling this weekend to attend my grandfather’s memorial service, and won’t return until late Sunday. Monday will be spent unpacking from the trip and trying to re-immerse ourselves in the daily grind, so I won’t have time to go grocery shopping and I certainly won’t be in the frame of mind to pull together a gorgeous meal the following day.

I’ll save it for our anniversary later this month.

In the meantime, I’ll share with you the dessert I would make if I was making a fabulous Valentine’s Day meal this year. This dessert looks impressive, tastes dee-vine, and best of all, takes only 15 minutes of your time. Oh, and it’s a whole lot easier than it looks, especially if you make it my way. You’ll find vastly more complicated recipes, but they make it way harder than it has to be. Trust me; this is the way to go.

Chocolate Lava Cakes
4 TBSP butter
1/3 cup semi-sweet (or bittersweet) chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate)
1 egg
1 egg yolk (freeze the white to use another day)
2 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP flour

Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave, stirring at 20-second intervals. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until it thickens slightly and lightens in color.

 

Beat in chocolate/butter mixture and flour until well blended and smooth.

Butter two 6oz ramekins. (I used my fingers to smush the butter into the edges just to be sure the cake would pop out nicely.) Sprinkle cocoa powder to cover the inside.

Divide the batter evenly between the two ramekins. Bake at 425F for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are set and the center is still a little “jiggly”. (At 8 minutes, mine were probably slightly underdone, but still edible and presentable.)

Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 15 seconds. Run a knife around the edges to loosen the cake.

Carefully invert the cake onto the dessert plate. Place your dessert plate on top of the ramekin while holding the ramekin in your right hand. (I’m not holding it here because I was taking the picture, but you get the idea!)

Place your left hand on top of the dessert plate…

…and flip so that your right hand is now on top. Set it down on the counter….

…and carefully lift off the ramekin.

And there’s your lava cake!

You can garnish your lovely little cakes in a multitude of ways. Here are a few ideas:

  • fresh berries, especially strawberry or raspberry
  • mint leaves
  • a dollop of whipped cream
  • a scoop of ice cream
  • chocolate shavings
  • powdered sugar
I garnished mine with dried coconut strips which is what I had in the cupboard; they turned out beautifully!
What can be QUICKer than 15 minutes? Not much! Besides which, you can make the batter up to a day ahead and bake the cakes right before serving.
I think you will agree that this is pretty EASY, especially considering how fancy and difficult it looks.
Making individual servings like this makes it a CHEAP choice; no waste! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thrown away cake because we just don’t eat it a lot. This is a much better route to go.
HEALTHY? Well, it’s dessert, what can I say? And certainly not the healthiest dessert I’ve ever come across. You can increase the nutritional value by choosing quality ingredients: dark chocolate, pastured eggs, raw sugar and real butter. I wasn’t brave enough to try whole wheat flour, but I bet white whole wheat would work in this recipe. (If you try it let me know! I was afraid it would affect the texture too much.)

It's a Keeper

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Better than the Box – Chocolate Pudding

July 16, 2009 By

Better Than the Box Chocolate Pudding One of my main goals on this blog is to prove to anyone who doesn’t believe me that cooking healthy foods from scratch is neither difficult nor time-consuming. Too many people think that cooking is either a great mystery they could never solve, or so time-consuming they would always be stuck in the kitchen. Instead, they rely on boxes (or bags or jars, or packages, you get the idea) that are quick and easy, but expensive and chock-full of unnecessary and unhealthy ingredients.

There’s a better way!

You don’t have to be a gourmet and spend hours over your creations in order to serve healthy delicious meals to your family. So throw away the box and make something from scratch for a change. If I can do it, you can do it!

For example, chocolate pudding. For a long time, I never even ate pudding because I didn’t want to use the mix found in a box, but I thought that home-made pudding was too time-consuming and difficult. Then my diet was forcibly changed because of my son’s allergies: there were so many foods I couldn’t eat, that I began to think outside the box (literally!) for foods that I could eat. I thought I had kissed chocolate good-bye for a while, until I found an allergen-free recipe for chocolate pudding. And I realized that it was so quick and easy, I could make it any time I needed a chocolate fix.

Once I discovered that, I branched out and made all kinds of pudding: butterscotch, vanilla, coconut, etc. I used them to make trifles and parfaits for desserts to serve to guests. And the best part was, it was every bit as easy as using a box!

But not as QUICK, you say. Almost as quick, I say. It took me approximately 10 minutes, start to finish. Anybody can find 10 minutes in their day to fix themselves a chocolate treat!

I thought home-made pudding was hard, but it’s actually quite EASY. What makes it difficult is using an egg, because the egg(s) has to be tempered, or gradually heated so that it doesn’t cook before it’s thoroughly mixed in. That problem is easily avoided by not using an egg! You’ll find most pudding recipes require an egg, but as I discovered, vegans and food-allergic folks know that pudding without an egg is every bit as good. An egg adds richness to pudding. So if you want your pudding a little richer, go ahead and fuss with the egg. But if you just want some pudding, forget the egg. You won’t miss it!

It’s CHEAPer than buying the box. I bet you don’t believe me because those boxes are pretty cheap. Aside from the milk (which is not included in the box anyway), the ingredients in this chocolate pudding cost less than $0.40, even if you don’t buy them on sale.

It may not be HEALTHY, but it’s certainly healthier than what’s in that box. Have you ever looked at the ingredients? Sugar, modified food starch, cocoa, disodium phosphate, natural & artificial flavors, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, monoglyceride, diglycerides, Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Artificial Colors, citric acid, BHA. Yum. I don’t even know why they need all those food colorings, because, as Matthew McConaughey says in “The Wedding Planner”, “Chocolate’s already brown.”

Have I convinced you yet?


Already Brown Chocolate Pudding
1/3 cup raw sugar
2 TBSP cornstarch
2 TBSP cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups milk
1 oz baking chocolate
1 tsp vanilla

In a saucepan, whisk together the dry ingredients:

Slowly whisk in the milk (this keeps the corn starch from clumping):

Stir constantly over medium heat until boiling. Continue to stir for another minute or so, until it begins to thicken. This is actually the trickiest part. If you take it off the heat too soon, it won’t gel at all, and you’ll be left with a sort of semi-solid milkshake instead. And if you leave it on the heat for too long, it will be a little too solid, and you’ll need to eat it with a fork! What you want is something in the middle. Just keep in mind that as it cools, it will continue to solidify.



Once it’s reached the right consistency, remove from the heat and add the 100% chocolate bar and vanilla. At this point, you can get creative and try adding different things. For example, chocolate chips instead of the chocolate bar. Or different flavorings instead of vanilla. I have also used a mixture of coffee and milk to make a mocha pudding. Mmmm, that was yummy.

Pour the pudding into serving dishes and place in refrigerator to cool. If you plan on serving to guests, you may want to consider placing some plastic wrap tightly on the surface of the pudding while it cools to prevent a skin from forming. I don’t bother when it’s just for myself, or if I’m going to stir it up and use it in something else. Garnish as desired:

Better Than the Box Chocolate Pudding

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