Homemade Chocolate Pudding

Like most kids of the 70's and 80's, I grew up eating Jell-O pudding from the box. I do believe my mom had to actually cook it, though.  We loved chocolate pudding and I still remember the little Tupperware bowls with lids that she'd put the pudding in for dessert later.

While I haven't actually looked at the ingredient list of a Jell-O pudding box in ages, I'm fairly certain it's not a whole foods, whole living kind of list.  I was also pretty certain that homemade pudding could not be that hard to make.

With the idea of making our own "pudding pops", the newly turned 5 year old donned her brand-new Star Wars apron from Aunt Mimi and we set to work.  The texture of this pudding is a bit different from the boxed stuff, but my kids don't seem to care (probably because I've never made the boxed stuff for them).

I don't know where she gets these poses from!

(Arrowroot powder is a substitution for corn starch. You could probably use corn starch, but I haven't tried it. I do, however, substitute arrowroot for corn starch all the time.)

Homemade Chocolate Pudding
2 1/2 cups whole milk
2/3 cup sucanat
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons butter

In a medium saucepan whisk together milk, sucanat, egg yolks, arrowroot and cocoa powders and salt.  STIRRING CONSTANTLY, heat over medium heat just until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and continue to stir until smooth and creamy (mine had some texture at first, but keep stirring and they'll go away!). Add butter and vanilla and mix.  Serve warm, chilled, or frozen.

Recipe from Heavenly Homemakers.

"Grilled" Brownie Cupcakes

I had intended to make these for Father's Day, but ran out of eggs and time.  We did manage to get them made for the 4th of July, though.  These are really, really easy and super cute. As an added bonus, if you like cinnamon candy (I do!) those Hot Tamales candies are awesome!

These would be cute at any summer get together!

"Grilled" Brownie Cupcakes
1 batch of your favorite brownie mix (I used this one)
1 tube black gel frosting 
1 box of Hot Tamale candy
Orange colored sugar

Bake brownie mix in a muffin pan (using paper liners is your choice!). Allow brownies to cool.

Use black gel to line each brownie cupcake.  Allow gel to set (about 15 minutes). Sprinkle orange colored sugar over brownie tops.  Using a toothpick, draw grill marks on the Hot Tamale candies. Place candies on brownies.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day was last week.  I generally avoid making chocolate chip cookies because they never turn out soft and chewy and perfect. Ever. I've tried countless recipes and have never achieved the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

Until now.

You will never need another chocolate chip cookie recipe ever again. Just trust me because I've tried them all. As an added bonus, this one super quick and easy.

(As I was typing this up, I realized that I actually baked my cookies at 400 degrees and I only used a 1/4 cup measure to make the cookies! Ooops! But, they only took about 6 minutes to bake and they still turned out perfectly!)

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 Tablespoons melted butter

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.  In bowl of electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined.  Beat in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low-speed just until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Roll a scant half-cup of dough into a ball.  Holding dough ball in fingertips of both hands, pull apart into two equal halves.  Put each half on parchment lined cookie sheet with jagged surfaces facing up (I put 9 on a sheet).  Bake, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy (approximately 11-14 minutes).  Do not overbake. Take them out just after they've risen and when they still look a little gooey in the middle.

Recipe found at Annie's Eats, but originally from Baking Illustrated.

Homemade Protein Bars

I've seen a lot of chatter on whole food blogs recently about homemade Larabars, which are basically protein bars. I've never had a Larabar and I'm not a huge fan of protein bars, but my husband loves them. If they didn't cost so much, we'd have protein bars in the house at all times. When I saw that Larabars are made with five or less ingredients, I was pretty sure that I could find a recipe for a homemade protein bar that would fit the bill of inexpensive and delicious.

You know a recipe is a winner when your uber picky four year old won't stop eating them and sings your praises for the new DELICIOUS snack. Of course, I made these one afternoon when she wasn't around because if she knew what was in them, there is no way she'd touch them! These are a winner with both the four year old and her protein bar loving Daddy.

Homemade Protein Bars
2 cups raw almonds
1/2 cup dates
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
Optional: 1/4 melted chocolate for topping (I used dark)

In a food processor pulse together almonds, dates, coconut, and peanut butter just to soften. Add coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla to food processor. Pulse into a coarse paste. Press mixture into an 8 x 8 square pan lined with parchment or wax paper, leaving about 2-3 inches over hanging the pan edges. Chill for 1 hour. Melt chocolate and spread on top of bars. Refrigerate until chocolate hardens. Using the overlapping parchment/wax paper gently lift the bars out of the pan and cut in to squares. Store in refrigerator or freezer.

Adapted from Passionate Homemaking.

Cheese Puffs: How to Replace Fish or Bunnies

If you have small children, you know of their immense love for those small, orange, fish shaped crackers. If you go the organic route, those crackers have "better" ingredients, are probably shaped like bunnies and cost a small fortune. I don't really like feeding my kids crackers simply because there is really no nutritional value at all in them (they are after all processed). But crackers hard to beat when a melt down is occurring and you are in public!

I ran across a recipe for "Cheese Shortbread" in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (the book is absolute gold mine for healthy alternatives) that seemed to fit the bill to replace any crispy "cheesy" snack item.

I love these! My husband says they are just tiny cheese biscuits (he's right). My 4 year old didn't like them at all, but the cayenne is a tad spicy. If you are making these for picky eaters, skip the cayenne or at least halve it. I used 1 cup of sharp cheddar and 1 cup extra sharp cheddar and the paprika (mine is sweet Hungarian) on top is delicious.

These are super easy and fairly quick to make. My 4 year old did most of the ball shaping on her own. Now if I can get used to the gigantic mess she makes while "helping", we'll be all set.

Cheese Puffs (because kids don't eat "shortbread"!)

1 stick cold butter, cut in to cubes
1 1/2 cup flour
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 cups semi-hard cheese, grated (cheddar, Emmental, Gruyere)
Paprika (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Put all ingredients except the paprika in to a food processor. Pulse to mix just until mixture resembles a coarse meal, but will stick together. You can also do this by hand with a pastry blender or fork in a large bowl. Roll dough in to 1 inch balls. Place on cookie sheet (you can place them fairly close together) and press down slightly. Bake for about 10 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Remove to rack to cool. Sprinkle with paprika if desired.

From Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

Make It Homemade: "Healtheier" Caramel Corn

Most days I feel like the ONLY thing I do is feed my kids. The two home with me full time are 4 and 1 and they pretty much eat NON-STOP. I often find myself at 2 o'clock in the afternoon trying to find another health snack for them. While caramel corn isn't exactly "healthy", it is lots of fiber and something I can make ahead of time and keep around.

I somewhat "healthified" this recipe by substituting sucanat for brown sugar and honey for corn syrup and it worked!

"Healthier" Caramel Corn
1 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
1 stick butter
1/4 cup honey (or corn syrup)
pinch of salt
pinch of cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
16 cups of popped popcorn

Put popcorn in a very, very large bowl. In a saucepan, bring the sucanat, butter and honey to a boil, stirring constantly. Once boiling, continue to stir for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and add baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Pour mixture over the popcorn and stir well (and quickly). Pour popcorn on to a large baking sheet (I put parchment down in case the honey stuck). Bake at 200 degrees for 1 hour. Break apart -- it cools quickly so work fast.

This post is linked to Heavenly Homemaker's Recipe Parade!