Kozy Shack makes some excellent rice, vanilla, chocolate, and tapioca puddings. However, my kids’ consumption rate and the Kozy Shack price point ($3 – $4 for a 24 ounce tub) are such that I’m strongly motivated to come up with less-expensive, homemade alternatives.
I’ve had success with the rice pudding recipe, even tapering back the on the cream (something I don’t typically have around the house) and using just milk. Here is a totally different recipe, using less rice and a longer baking time. It’s closer to what my mom used to make me when I was a kid.
Baked rice pudding – Fannie Farmer Cookbook
4C milk
1/2 t salt
2/3 C sugar
3 T rice
- Preheat oven to 300°F
- put all the ingredients in a buttered baking dish and stir to blend
- Bake for 3 1/2 hours, stirring three times during the first hour of baking so the rice doesn’t settle
Sunday, after the excitement of plumbing and the rat wore off, I made Blancmange, a cornstarch vanilla pudding. It’s very simple, and if cooked long enough, the corn starch flavour isn’t pronounced.
Blancmange (vanilla pudding) —
Fannie Farmer Cookbook
3 T cornstarch
4 T sugar
1/8 t salt
2 C milk
1 t vanilla
- Mix the cornstarch, sugar, and salt with 1/4 C of the milk.
- In a heavy-bottomed pan over moderately low heat, heat the remaining milk, then slowly add the cornstarch mixture, stirring constantly. Cook until thickened
- Continue to cook for about 15 minutes so the raw taste of the cornstarch disappears.
- Let cool, then add the vanilla. Cover and chill.
* For chocolate pudding, add 2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate as you heat the milk. If you’re making the vanilla version, you probably want to use a clear vanilla. Mine has a brown tinge that tints most foods, making them an unaesthetic color.
The Cooks’ Illustrated version of chocolate pudding is great, but much more involved than chocolate-flavoured blancmange. Next time I try this, I will sub the cream. Also, most of these recipes recommend adding the vanilla after you’re done cooking. I suspect this has something to do with the alcohol content of most vanillas. (It instantly boils.)
Double chocolate pudding —
The Best Recipe
2 T Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 T cornstarch
2/3 C sugar
1/8 t salt
1 C cream
3 large egg yolks
2 C milk
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 T unsalted butter, softened
2 t vanilla extract
- Sift cocoa powder, cornstarch, sugar, and salt into a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. (NB: “heavy-bottomed” is a euphemism for “you’re likely to burn something on it, so use a good pan that you can scour.”). Slowly whisk in the light cream, the yolks, then the milk. Stir in the chocolate. (The clumps will smooth out as you cook it.)
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, scraping the entire pot — bottoms and sides. Pudding will gradually darken and thicken.
- Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring gently, and constantly with a wooden spoon, until the pudding thickly coats the spoon. (Temperature is about 200°F).
- Pass the pudding through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl. Stir the butter and vanilla into the pudding.
- Serve warm or cover the surface and cool 30 minutes before refrigerating.