To compliment my chocolate pudding, I decided to attempt a vanilla pudding recipe. I used the same basic ingredients in the same basic formula, but I did reduce the amount of milk, since there was less dry ingredient than the chocolate recipe.
This recipe uses a vanilla bean, mostly because I found them at Costco and I’ve been looking for an excuse to use them. But I know you could use vanilla extract (next time I’ll try it and let you know how much). It lent a really nice fresh vanilla flavor, plus the pretty vanilla bean specks!
So here’s the basic recipe:
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 cups milk
- 1 vanilla bean, cut open and scraped
Again, the steps are simple (sorry, I didn’t take photos!):
- Stir together the dry ingredients in a pan.
- Add the milk and stir together. This is also when you add the vanilla scrapings and the halves of the bean.
- Turn on the heat to medium.
- Stir, stir, stir.
- Repeat #4.
- Let the mixture come to a boil and let the cornstarch thicken up the whole thing.
- Remove the vanilla bean halves before you turn off the heat and transfer the whole thing to a bowl for cooling!
This has a nice fresh vanilla flavor and is not too sweet (just perfect!). I didn’t even take a photo of the finished product, because to be honest it’s vanilla pudding, so it’s not terribly appetizing in a photo. I think I’m going to find an excuse to make my grandmother’s zuppa inglese (an Italian dessert similar to a tiramisu, which involves layering ladyfingers with chocolate and vanilla pudding – and those of you who know Italian, please don’t ask… I don’t have the faintest idea why a pudding dessert is called English soup!), and use the fresh pudding!
You could also make a fresh carmel sauce to drizzle over it… It’s killer!
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