How about some Vanilla Cinnamon Chia Pudding or just plain Organic Chocolate?

How about some Vanilla Cinnamon Chia Pudding or just plain Organic Chocolate?

      With the weather being so cold, and plenty of snow to play in, sometimes Hot Chocolate becomes boring.  How to mix it up and be healthy?  Make home made pudding.  This recipe is an adaptation of Grandma's Jello Salad recipe.  Which, is one of my most popular recipes!  Give it a try.  Anyway, my son and I love Chocolate.  I try to make healthy treats for us, and can't bring myself to use the boxed pudding mixes any longer.  If I can't pronounce an ingredient, without a Chemistry dictionary, then I probably shouldn't be eating it.  Thus this recipe was born.  I made a vanilla pudding for Rice Pudding and raisins.  It was very good.  So why not make chocolate?  I used Organic Cacao powder, it's a superfood!  

Organic Chocolate Pudding

   This picture shows how silky smooth the pudding is.  In fact, my son liked it so much he keeps asking for it.  When making my second batch, I messed up the flour and sugar  measurements.  Not to worry, the result was a super thick pudding, so I just added milk to thin it out.  Worked great. So, don't freak if the pudding looks super thick, just add more milk.  Don't forget you can also use 2% or skim milk for this.  We were snowed in and this was the only milk I had.  I don't usually use this brand, but when a snow storm is on the way, you sometimes have to take what Organic milk you can get.  

When I was enjoying this delicious dessert I thought about my friend whose son has a lot of food allergies, like me, and my other friend who is opening a restaurant and wants to use "healthy alternative" foods.  

My friends son wouldn't be able to enjoy this pudding because of the milk and egg.  So I sent her a message to ask what she used to substitute eggs.  She told me Chia seeds or flax seeds.  Ok, I had coconut milk and chia seeds.  She was coming over today, so I put her to work. We created this new pudding recipe.  I'm so happy with it!   Her son loved the pudding.  The consistency was a touch thinner, and it didn't set up as solidly as a pudding, but it was setting up better as it cooled.  

Vanilla Cinnamon Chia Pudding

Homemade Chocolate Pudding 

1 cup of organic milk

1 organic egg  beaten

2 Tablespoons of organic flour

3 Tablespoons of organic sugar

1/2 cup of Cacao powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

1 teaspoon organic ground cinnamon stick (optional)

In a sauce pan over medium heat, 

pour 1 cup milk and beaten egg

vanilla and cinnamon (both are optional)

DO NOT LET IT BOIL!!!!!!!  

Whisk frequently (you'll see it start to thicken)

Get the flour and sugar ready to whisk into the hot mixture.  

Whisk as you put the flour in to avoid lumps.  

I put my flour and sugar in a bowl, whisk with one hand and shake in with the other hand.  

After you have incorporated the flour and sugar then whisk in the cacao powder.

If the mixture is too thick or you just prefer a thinner pudding, then whisk in  more milk until it is the consistency you like.  

After the cacao is mixed in thoroughly and there are no lumps the pudding is ready. 

Homemade Vanilla Cinnamon Chia Pudding

2 cans Coconut milk

1 Tablespoon of milled Organic Chia seeds (substitution for eggs)

4 Tablespoons of Organic Flour

4 Tablespoons of Organic Sugar

1 1/2 Teaspoons of Vanilla extract

1 Stick of Organic Cinnamon (ground well)

I put the cinnamon stick and the chia seeds in my vitamix and milled to a powder

Put the milled mixture in a measuring cup and add 1/2 can of coconut  milk.  This will allow the seeds to thicken.  You may want to add the entire can if it looks like the seeds have thickened a lot. 

Put the other can of coconut milk and the vanilla, in a sauce pan over low heat. 

When it starts to steam add the chia seeds.  DO NOT LET IT BOIL.

Whisk in the flour and sugar. 

If the mixture is not as thick as you like, add some more flour, just be careful that you don't add too much.  You don't want to taste the flour in the pudding.  

You may want to add Cacao powder to this to make it chocolate.  We couldn't because Junior is allergic to nuts, and the Cacao was packaged in a facility that also pacakages tree nuts.  

This was very good!  I was surprised to be honest.  Pleasantly surprised.  

If you like this recipe, please comment below and visit me again!  

Home Made Dark Chocolate Low Fat Pudding

If you're like me, anything "chocolate" is a favorite.  Except maybe the hot pepper chocolate bars, those are kind of, well, scary.  They don't taste very good either.  I love pudding, but I don't like instant pudding.  The pudding that you have to cook on the stove is very delicious, but a little time consuming.  It's also not the healthiest alternative to deserts.
I was watching a medical show and the topic was how to get rid of belly fat.  A hot topic these days.  One thing that was stated as a belly fat fighter, was dark chocolate.  The darker the better.  Sounds too good to be true, so I thought I better act quick before that tip is recanted.

My Grandmothers Homemade Jello Salad recipe is a favorite one on this blog.  Every week, people from all over the world, visit the "Grandma's Jello Salad" blog page.  In the recipe Grandma shares how to make a homemade fruit pudding.  It's delicious.  I was talking to her the other day and told her I was going to try to modify it to make chocolate pudding.  She said to go ahead and let her know how it turned out.  Well, it turned out amazingly well!  It's a versatile recipe, by adding butterscotch chips, vanilla flavoring or use fruit juice instead of milk, this pudding can be made to suit any tastes!

Home Made Dark Chocolate Low Fat Pudding:

1 egg, beaten

1 cup 2% milk

3 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 pinch kosher salt

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate Hershey kisses)

In a small bowl add the flour and 1 tablespoon of the milk, mix into a paste, add a little more milk from the 1 cup if needed.  This will keep the flour from clumping.

Add the milk and egg to a small saucepan over medium heat, and heat through

Add the flour paste and continue to whisk

Add the pinch salt

The pudding will thicken quickly, so don't take your eyes from it

Once the pudding starts to thicken lower the heat and add the chocolate chips

Mix well until the chocolate has melted

Taste to see if you need the sugar, add more or less to your tastes

I only added the sugar because dark chocolate can be a bit bitter for young tastes and I wanted my son to enjoy the pudding too, so I added 2 teaspoons raw sugar to it.  

No need to chill until set, it will already be thick, and warm pudding is always tastier than cold.  Cold chocolate pudding is delicious too, but I prefer warm.  

This would be a wonderful pie filling as well.  Add some fruit and you've got a fantastic, easy, fancy desert.  

Homemade Nutella Delicious Hazelnut and Chocolate delight!

Growing up as a child of a German mother, we received many treats from Germany from my Omi.  She would send us a box filled with candies, gum and gummy bears.  My brother, sister and I waited excitedly for this box to arrive, wrapped in brown paper and tied shut with white twine.  Once opened the heavenly aroma of German candies wafted out to spark an instant mouth watering experience.  Mom would hand us a few little candies to taste and then keep the rest to give as treats through out the next few months.  While I was in middle school, my Omi got very ill and my Mom took me with her to Germany to take care of Omi.  She recovered nicely, thank the Lord.  While we were there, I rode a bike into town every morning, to get our breakfast.  During the day I would explore on the bike and soon learned that when I went into a store, I was rewarded with a treat.  Soon my lunch consisted of a ride to Frau Nett's bakery to get some stale bread to feed the ducks with, and also a roll for myself.  Down the street I would be given a small bag of Gummy Bears or Mamba candy.  Around the corner and to the butchers, I would be given a piece of freshly cut deli meat.  On to the lake to eat my lunch while feeding the swans and ducks.  Then one day, I was given a Kinderschokolade (Kinder = children, Schokolade = Chocolate) by my Omi.  Oh my goodness, it was delicious.  Since it was made with milk and Hazelnut spread, my mom let me have it almost everyday.  It was delicious.  I remember this chocolate always, especially now that I have a child who has a sweet tooth, just like me! Once back in the states there would be no more until that Christmas box arrived with our bounty of sweets.
Now days, we can purchase a delicious Hazelnut spread called Nutella.  It is made with natural ingredients, but still needs to have some form of preservative to keep it from spoiling.  It's quite good but I have a hard time eating it because of the preservative factor.  Imagine how delighted I was to find a blogger who gave the recipe for HOMEMADE NUTELLA!!! Could it be? Only one way to find out, try it.  I did, and 2 batches later I am thrilled.  Csilla, The eccentric cook, has given me permission to re-post her recipe.  She is from Hungary and writes a lovely blog about cooking with recipes.  You really should look her up, I've included a link to her blog in this one.

The recipe is quite simple and well written, I did add some things that I thought would be helpful to know, as well as giving the conversions from Grams to Ounces.  I've used two of her pictures (how can one improve on a good thing and her pictures are very nice) as shown below.  The one at the top is a picture of my first batch of this fantastic stuff!!!

Homemade Nutella


200 g (7.05 oz) Hazelnuts
1 can condensed milk
255 g (9 oz) Chocolate-the darker the better
1/2 cup hot milk

Roast the Hazelnuts for 10-15 minutes either in the oven or in a dry pan on the stove top. I roasted them in a 325 oven, if you start to smell them, they are about to burn get them out quick!!!

If the nuts have the skin still on them, after you roast them, it will come off easily

Take the nuts out of the oven, or off the stove and let them cool down a little while

When they are no longer hot, (take off the skin) and put in the food processor and start processing them into Hazelnut butter

Depending on the size of your food processor, it could take a while.  If you have a large one (like I did) I put it on high and it only took a few minutes.  I would scrape around the sides and off the bottom from time to time just to make sure it all processed smoothly.

Your Hazelnut butter should look like this:

When you are finished with the Hazelnut butter, leave it in the processor and move on to melting the chocolate.

 Using a double boiler melt the chocolate.  If you don't have a double boiler, you could put water in a sauce pan and place a stainless steel bowl on top to melt the chocolate.

Once the chocolate has melted, pour in the condensed milk (it will get thick but don't worry)

Mix them together

Add the mixture to the Hazelnut butter and process until combined.

If the Nutella is too thick, as Csilla's and mine was, add the milk while processing to combine well.

You may also choose to leave the milk out if you would rather have a thicker spread.

Ta da, Ci si va

This recipe made 4 small Jelly Jars of Nutella.  Anyone who tasted it wanted to take a jar home.  I've made two batches and have only my original jar, and one extra all the others are gone. This is very easy but tastes like you've slaved in the kitchen all day.  You won't have to tell anyone any different.  Let them be impressed by your kitchen skills.  :)

Thank you to Csilla, The eccentric Cook http://theeccentriccook.blogspot.com for allowing me to share this with my readers.
 
Be sure to refrigerate this homemade Nutella since it has milk products in it.