#27 Vanilla Pudding

I love pudding...well, let me re-phase that...I love warm chocolate pudding. One of my favorite treats is that cook and serve chocolate pudding that you make from the box. I even like the skin:) But it must be warm...or forget it! So I was excited to see homemade pudding recipes in the book. I decided to start with vanilla to make good use of my awesome vanilla beans.

Vanilla Pudding

4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 vanilla bean or 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup cornstarch

1. Combine 3 cups of the milk with the sugar and salt in a heavy bottomed medium saucepan and set over medium heat. If using, scrape seeds from the vanilla bean and put in milk...toss the whole bean in too. Heat until steaming, stirring frequently.

2. In a small bowl combine cornstarch and remaining cup of milk. Stir well until mixture is fairly lump free. Take out vanilla bean, rinse and add to your homemade vanilla extract.

3. Raise the heat to medium high and add cornstarch mixture and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture just starts to bubble. Reduce heat to low and stir continuously until mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon, 5-7 minutes.

4. If you are using vanilla extract instead of a bean, now is the time to add it. Pudding will thicken as it chills. Pour into individual dishes and chill before serving...unless you are like me and you like warm pudding:) If you do not like the skin, press plastic wrap against the surface while it chills.
You can store in the fridge, in individual covered containers, for 2-3 days.

Most of my kids liked it....my hubby and I liked it...but as I said before...chocolate is my fave! So I can't wait to try that! I definitely will try to make pudding homemade from now on....it is not really any more difficult, than the box stuff and I actually think it might be faster. The vanilla is for sure tastier, with a more authentic vanilla flavor!

#7 Vanilla Sugar

After looking thru the book "The Homemade Pantry, 101 Foods You Can Start Making and Stop Buying" by Alana Chernila,  I have definitely noticed a few that I will be substituting since they are not exactly pantry staples in my life. There are not many, but a few like....Curry Powder- Page 124.....I have never used curry powder and don't really want to. Another,  Herb Syrup- Page 246....I love herbs and grow many of them, but I can't see making a syrup out of it. Teas- Page 242....I like tea and I grow many of the herbs that I could use to make my own tea, but there are other "homemade pantry" recipes that fit my lifestyle better....and that is why I am substituting this "how-to" for vanilla sugar. I got the idea yesterday when I ran out of my beloved flavored creamer that my hubs and I put into our coffee. I thought....this would be great if I found a recipe for homemade flavored coffee creamer. I looked at the ingredients and since with get the "natural" stuff it was only cream, sugar and flavoring....well that sure sounds easy to duplicate. And....I just found another use for these lovely vanilla beans that I just purchased for a few of the other recipes in the book....

That's right....Vanilla Beans! Madagascar Vanilla Beans....I got them at www.beanilla.com and since they were running a special I got 20 of these for about 90 cents each.....and they are AWESOME and will last me a year! I could not wait to use them so I decided to make vanilla sugar.

 

First you need to take the tip of a sharp knife and split it length-wise and scrap the seeds out....add to a nice container of pure cane sugar. I used two fresh beans. But you can use used beans too!

I also cut the beans in half and stuck them in. I mixed this really well to incorporate all those beautifully fragrant vanilla bean seeds.

Can you see all those tiny seeds? As they dry...it will be easier to mix them in even better. But that is all there is to it. I can add sugar to the beans...or later add more beans to keep an unending supply. So now if I buy just a simple carton of cream or half/half and add this vanilla sugar to my coffee....I can stop buying flavored coffee creamer and just make it. Yummy!