Chocolate Pudding and Vanilla Pudding : Eggless with vegan options

Chocolate Pudding, Egg Free

Vanilla Pudding, Egg Free

Pudding! Weekend is right around the corner and what better than having a no nonsense recipe at hand for those weekend get togethers or some sinful (not so) indulgences. I say not so since I used 1% milk and almost 1/2 the quantity of sugar recommended. Believe me it is still plenty sweet. I write vegan options above since 1% milk can easily be substituted with soy milk, rice milk, almond milk or oats milk.

I have to thank one of my readers who follows me on my simplyvegetarian777 Facebook page. Her name is Ritu Pattnaik Mohanty. She requested me almost a month ago for an eggless pudding recipe. If you have followed me for sometime, then you may have noticed that I normally don’t do desserts unless it’s a call of the ocassion. Well she made me think and search and search more. I have always bought the Readymade puddings from the store for the kids and which also I stopped a while ago because of the sugar content and fat content in those. If they were sugar free then they had Splenda or other sugar substitutes in them. I noted down a couple of recipes from yummly and all recipes and tweaked a bit, adjusted some and created my own version with adjusted sugar levels and quantities.

I must say the result was quite delightful. Two of the chocolate dishes are already over. My girls couldn’t wait :).

The best part is that the recipe requires only a few ingredients. I think that is quite fantastic!

Also, want to share that I am a part of Meatless Mondays now. Soooooo excited to be a part of this group. Thanks Vanessa Protass for including me :). To know more about Meatless Mondays, click here.

Let’s begin. Vanilla first or chocolate first? Chocolate first or vanilla first? Vanilla..no…chocolate? Dang! Okay, chocolate first since kids loved it ;).

Chcolate Pudding, Eggless

Ingredients :

1% milk or low fat milk : 2 cups. You may use soy milk, almond milk or any other type of plant or nuts based milk.
Cornstarch : 2 tbsp + 1 tsp
Sugar : 2 tbsp
Salt : 1/8 tsp
Semi sweet or dark chocolate chips : 1/3 cup. I used semi sweet chocolate chips. If you use bitter chocolate chips then increase the amount of sugar by 1 tbsp.

Serves : 3
Method :

Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in a medium thick bottom saucepan.

Slowly whisk in the milk, in a thin steam at first so that lumps don’t form, then more quickly once the cornstarch mixture is smoothly incorporated.

Place over low heat and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides with a whisk. I stirred quite constantly.

Once it starts bubbling up, add chocolate chips, approximately after 2-3 minutes. Use a whisk as necessary should lumps begin to form.

It will start picking up dark chocolate color in some time, but it will start with light color and frothy, which will settle down. You may increase the flame little towards medium. Constant Stirring is important to avoid burning and sticking at the base of the saucepan.

Continue to cook for about 7-8 minutes and stir until mixture thickens. Do not boil. Place a spoon back side down and lift up. If the mixture sticks at the back, then it is ready.

Pour into serving dishes. Chill before serving.

The topping is done with cookie crumbles and blueberries.

Vanilla Pudding, Eggless
The vanilla pudding is almost the same. Just the step where chocolate chips are added is skipped. Also, it needs vanilla extract to be added in the end.

Ingredients :

1% milk or low fat milk : 2 cups. You may use soy milk, almond milk or any other type of plant or nuts based milk.
Cornstarch : 2 tbsp + 1 tsp
Sugar : 2 tbsp
Salt : 1/8 tsp
Vanilla extract : 3/4 tsp

Method :

Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan.

Slowly whisk in the milk, in a thin steam at first so that lumps don’t form, then more quickly once the cornstarch mixture is smoothly incorporated.

Place over low heat and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary should lumps begin to form.

Continue to cook for about 5 minutes and stir until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Do not boil. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla extract.

Pour into serving dishes. Chill before serving.

The topping is done with cinnamon and coco powder topped with chopped pistachio slivers.