Vanilla Pudding

Homemade pudding is totally worth it.  For a vegan, fantastic, chocolate version, check out  this recipe of ours. 

With grass fed cream, butter, and our eggs, this dessert is chock full of CLAs and Omega 3s, what a healthy treat!

OK, the sugar isn't great for you ...but you gotta live sometimes, right?  Want a sugar free treat or to learn about sugar?   Try this one. 

Makes 4 cups

Ingredients

• 175g (3/4 cup) sugar
• 15g (2 tablespoons) cornstarch
• 950g (4 cup) half and half (2C cream and 2C whole milk) 
• 4 large egg yolks (Fry the whites with your bacon fat!)
• ~15g (1 tablespoon) of grass-fed unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract  (make your own)

Instructions

1. Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a medium heavy saucepan. Slowly whisk in the half and half, then the yolks.
2. Bring the mixture to a simmer over med-high heat, whisking gently, but constantly and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan – you can raise the temp slower if you want to be safer. Stir until the pudding is thick and coats the back of a spoon, about one or two minutes longer.
3. Strain the pudding through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, scraping the insides of the strainer with a rubber spatula to pass the pudding through (optional). Stir the butter and vanilla into the pudding until the butter is melted. 
4. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate until set, about three hours.  OR place bowl into a ice water bath and whisk every so often until cool. 

Tips

• For a smooth pudding, it is important to pass the pudding through a  fine-mesh strainer  in order to remove any bits of cooked egg.  The slower you heat up the pudding / better you continually stir, the smoother it will be.