Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Homemade Vanilla Pudding

"It has been said that frugality is a hallmark of a good cook. Some of the most talented practitioners I know are nearly fanatical about never wasting a morsel - chunks of stale bread are used for bread crumbs or bread pudding ... and vegetable trimmings invariably find their way into stock. This does not reflect a penurious bent so much as a love of and respect for food and its preparation. Cooking economically is part of the challenge of cooking well."--Pierre Franey

This morning as I was getting ready for breakfast, I noticed that the milk was going a little sour again. Why does that keep happening to us? I guess we need to drink it faster. Anyway, rather than just throw it out, I chose to use this milk on its last legs to make something yummy! Last time that happened I made it into yogurt. But this time there were only a couple cups of milk that needed to be used right away. So I decided it would be fun to make pudding for breakfast.


This recipe comes from allrecipes.com, and is very delicious! It utilizes cornstarch as a thickener instead of egg. So it's cheaper, and I actually think I prefer the flavor of this pudding as opposed to an egg-thickened pudding; the cornstarch allowed the vanilla flavor to come through a bit more.

Homemade Vanilla Pudding
2 cups milk
1/2 cup white sugar (can be reduced if desired)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon butter

In medium saucepan over medium heat, heat milk until bubbles form at edges. In a bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Pour into hot milk, a little at a time, stirring to dissolve (typically you don't add cornstarch to hot liquid. But I trusted the recipe and did it this way. As long as you add it very gradually [like, a teaspoon or two at a time], and whisk continuously, there shouldn't be any problems with clumping). Continue to cook and stir until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Do not boil. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and butter. Pour into serving dishes. Chill before serving.

Actually, I served the pudding warm this morning, because I didn't think the kids would be patient enough to wait for it to chill. I sliced banana into the kids' bowls of pudding, but I ate mine plain. It would also be good sprinkled with cinnamon or nutmeg.

7 comments:

Barbara Bakes said...

I haven't tried making pudding with cornstarch. I'll have to give it a try!

Jess said...

I have not tried to make home made vanilla yet. I've made chocolate, but I don't know why not vanilla. I actually have ALL the ingredients to make this! I'm off to make pudding!!
Thank you!!

Shelby said...

my pudding recipe calls for cornstarch and egg....good to know you can leave the egg out!

Rebekah said...

Yummy-what a great idea. i've never made homemade pudding before. this is one i'll be trying soon!

Meg said...

Delicious. There is nothing better than homemade pudding!

Just a reminder that I changed my blog address: http://www.megansmunchies.com/

Bridget said...

I've never thought of serving it for breakfast...great idea with the bananas!

Rebekah said...

Hey Stephanie, I just found out that you never got your Progresso basket that you won on a previous post. Could you email me your mailing address at rebekahskitchen(at)live(dot)com again so we can get that out to you? Sorry for the delay!!!!