gluten-free

We are on the tail end of a two week tour of our household by the flu. The only person who has -thus far- remained unscathed is my germaphobe husband. Don’t get me wrong, I am the original Purell poster girl, but next to me, my hubby is Howard Hughes. The poor guy looks like a man on death row awaiting his fate. He jumps at the rattle of every cough (which means he’s been getting quite a cardiovascular workout lately.) He’s been bravely facing his fate, making runs to the store for more boxes of tissues, whipping together dinner for his furniture jockey crew, delivering, “Hey! It’s been five days! I bet you’ll be feeling great soon! Can I throw an ibuprofen to you from over here?” pep talks, and sitting on the couch with his tuberculoid family with barely a deer-in-the-headlight look in his eyes.

It’s been anything-goes on television here. The kids have been glutting themselves on Phineas and Ferb, Little Bill (the little guys), Full Metal Alchemist (the big guys), and recorded episodes of Monk, Nova, and Star Trek. (Wavin’ the nerd flag even when sick. Holla!) And food? Oh gosh. Let’s just say that letting my eleven year old mix up a box of instant chocolate pudding for himself sounded like a perfectly reasonable lunch option for a few days especially if it meant I could remain in my chair with a blanket pulled up under my chin. The boxed instant pudding ran out pretty quickly because I don’t stock much of that (two box maximum is my usual count). We prefer homemade cooked pudding for both flavour and nutritive (HA!) value. Look. I know I’ll never win a parenting award for feeding my kids pudding, so I pretend that homemade is enough better for you that it cancels out anything I’m doing wrong. Yes? Anyone?

But I was saying we ran out of instant pudding. TRAGEDY! And my husband had just come home from a tissue procuring mission and retreated to the home-office germ-free fortress. HORRORS! And the kids were hungry and wanted pudding. And I wanted my blankie and chair. So I did what any insane woman would do. I got up and whipped together homemade instant pudding mix. The first iteration of it didn’t go over so well. They said there was a funny after-taste. I -who could taste NOTHING ANYWAY- had to take their word for it. Take two went much more smoothly. In fact, the one child I have who DOESN’T like pudding (to which I say, what have I done wrong?) actually liked it. In fact, he ate his own serving and part of someone else’s serving, too.

There were two mixes I made for the kids: chocolate and vanilla. Almost to a man, they preferred the vanilla with one hold out for the chocolate. Howard Hughes, er, my husband, also preferred the chocolate.

How did I get a pudding texture with no cooking? I used instant clear jel. (Please note, this is an affiliate link.)

Have you used this stuff before? It’s seriously fun. It is a modified corn starch (and thus gluten-free!) that does not require heat to thicken liquids. It’s most commonly used in fresh berry pies or fruit glazes. Mmmmm… Fresh strawberry pie! It can be used to thicken gravies, sauces and stews, too. When you’re using it in a cold application (like a drink, berry pie, or this pudding) the key is to whisk it into other dry ingredients -like sugar- before combining it with the liquid you want to thicken. This prevents clumping in the final product. If you do end up with clumping, all is not lost, though. You can save the day by tossing everything in the blender and whizzing it together or using a stick-blender to bust up the lumps. When it’s fully hydrated, it yields a silky smooth, soft gelled product.

Naturally, the final product is going to be different than the boxed instant pudding… It’s lighter in texture, in fact, it’s almost fluffy and mousse like. The vanilla pudding is milk white and the chocolate is almost speckly looking because of the lack of artificial food colouring. If you want it to look closer to its storebought counterpart, you can add a drop of yellow food dye to the vanilla and a drop of brown to the chocolate.

One final word before I get on with giving you the recipe. Aside from the fact that I was thrilled to be able to avoid going out in the blowing cold with tissues stuffed up my nose to buy boxed pudding mix for my kids, I’m wicked excited about this no-cook instant pudding mix for another reason; my nieces and nephew have some fierce food sensitivities including gluten. My sister, Jessamine, has spent years making everything from scratch for her kids to avoid ingredients that would make them sick. While that’s just fine most of the time, when she’s feeling poorly or her oven is on the fritz (both of which were true this past week), it is nice to have a couple of go-to convenience items. I can’t even wait to shove a big quart jar of this with directions written on a card into her paws the next time I see her. The pudding is naturally gluten-free, being made with modified corn starch but can also easily be mixed up with coconut, soy, almond, or rice milk to yield a deliciously creamy dairy-free, vegan pudding. I’m having fun picturing my nieces and nephew sitting down to a bowl of homemade instant pudding. Sometimes it’s the little things…

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I hear my husband mumbling something about a Spruce Goose…

Homemade No-Cook Instant Pudding Mix | Make Ahead Mondays

Easy to put together and just as easy to turn into pudding, this dry Homemade Instant No-Cook Pudding Mix is a pantry friendly staple that stores for up to a year at room temperature. This mix is a wonderful homemade alternative to its storebought counterpart, is gluten-free and can be prepared to be dairy-free and vegan with coconut, almond, soy, or rice milk.

Ingredients

For Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix:

2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups instant clear jel
1/2 teaspoon salt

For Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix:

2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups instant clear jel
2 cups dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

To Prepare Pudding:

2 cups of milk (Whole, 2%, 1% or Fat-free Cow's milk, Goat milk, Coconut, Soy, Almond or Rice milk.)
3/4 cup pudding mix
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract (for the vanilla) or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (for the chocolate.)

Instructions

To Make Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix:

Add the granulated sugar, instant clear jel, and salt to the carafe of a blender. Fix the lid firmly in place and blend on high for about 30 seconds, or until the ingredients are completely mixed and finely powdered. Let the contents rest about 5 minutes before transferring to canning jars or airtight containers with tight fitting lids. I use a spoon to transfer the mix to prevent powder going POUF in the air.

To Make Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix:

Add the granulated sugar, instant clear jel and salt to the carafe of a blender. Fix the lid firmly in place and blend on high for about 30 seconds, or until the ingredients are completely mixed and finely powdered. Let the contents rest about 5 minutes before removing the lid and adding the dutch process cocoa powder. Replace the lid tightly and blend on high for about 15 seconds, or until the mixture is a uniform colour. Let the contents rest about 5 minutes before transferring to canning jars or airtight containers with tight fitting lids. I use a spoon to transfer the mix to prevent powder going POUF in the air.

Store the mix in the airtight containers in a cool, dark place for up to a year. A cabinet or basement shelf should work well.

To Make Pudding from Either Mix:

Pour 2 cups of cold milk into a mixing bowl and add the appropriate amount of vanilla extract. Sprinkle 3/4 of a cup of mix over the top and whisk in thoroughly until thickened. If you are having trouble with clumping, you can either pour the contents into a blender and blend on medium until smooth or use a stick blender to break up the lumps and smooth the mixture. It will be soft set immediately, but improves in flavour and texture if it is allowed to rest (with a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface) for at least 30 minutes.

Notes

If the pudding is too soft set, you can add extra pudding mix, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it thickens to your liking.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/01/21/homemade-no-cook-instant-pudding-mix-make-ahead-mondays/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Oh! And before I go, I want to invite each of you to a Twitter party sponsored by Land O’Lakes tomorrow evening from 8-9pmEST. It will be co-hosted by Amber, from the Land O’Lakes test kitchen and yours truly. We will be talking about recipes from the Big Game Collection for the upcoming Super Bowl, sharing tips for entertaining a crowd, and giving away prizes. All you have to do to participate is tweet using the hashtag #CheeseChatter during that timeframe and you’ll be entered to win one of several prize packages that will include:

One Mario Batali pizza stone
One bamboo cutting board
One six-inch gourmet chef’s knife
Set of four canapé plates
One reusable refrigerated grocery bag
One high-value Land O’Lakes deli cheese coupon

I hope to see you all there! For more information on how to participate, click here!

Around a decade ago, my stepmom, Val, and my dad gave us a seriously burly juicer as a gift. For those of you well-versed in juicers, I’ll name drop for a second here; it’s a Champion. That thing is jet-engine powerful. And I used that jet engine to make juice. Lots of juice. Juice is good for kids, right?* But there’s only so much juice a gal and her crew can consume.

*Well, as long as it’s real juice and not a sugar bomb. I know…

Then one day, while we were hovering around Val’s kitchen looking hungry (because if you’re smart, that is the way you’ll arrange your face in her kitchen so you can taste her food), she offered to whip up a treat for us. She fished some frozen mango strips and bananas from the freezer. She assembled her own juicer and stuffed the frozen fruit into it. The motor whirred and out of the end of the juicer came… what?… seriously???… It was ice cream. Or at least it looked it.

And oh-my-sweet-heavens it tasted like it. It tasted like the most glorious, indulgent ice cream I had ever eaten. I didn’t even wait until it made it to my own personal bowl. My spoon kept going back to the bowl sitting under the juicer. The Evil Genius’s spoon was even faster than mine. Superlatives were used folks.

That was a day that will live in our memories forever, because it was the day we discovered (I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but my kids are standing over me insisting I tell you what they call it) Fruit Poop. If I wasn’t so desensitized by being the mother of five boys, I might have died just now putting that in print for all you to read, but that’s what the kids (including the big, adult one to whom I’m married) like to call it. This name came about while watching the juicer extrude the fruit. Okay, boys. I told them. Can I go back to calling it ice cream now?

All summer long, this is our go-to dessert. And for years, I’ve kept my mango strips, bananas, and whatever other frozen fruit I wanted to use in plastic containers in the freezer. The only problem was that the lids on those dad-burned containers always shattered on me when I tried to pry them off. I tried switching to freezer bags, but those would slip down in and among rock-hard venison loins, bags of peas and corn, and white paper packages containing that half-a-pig we ordered. It drove me batty.

I recently discovered the joy that is Glad Freezerware. It’s made to go into the freezer! (Duh, right?) It’s tough stuff. It’s made to go from freezer to microwave to whatever and is dishwasher safe. SCORE. I’m still trying to figure out a way to make my kids dishwasher safe. That would so simply my life. Glad… can you get on that? Please?

Here’s how I use it for the One-Ingredient Ice Cream. Cut a large amount of ripe mangoes and bananas into strips or one-inch thick chunks. Believe me. You’re going to want this often. Lay them out -not touching- on a parchment lined baking sheet and stash them in the freezer until frozen solid all the way through. The point in freezing them like this is so you don’t have one giant lump of frozen fruit. No matter HOW burly your juicer or food processor, you cannot make something good out of lump-o-fruit.

Do your level best not to snitch them at this point. Yes, I know they’re tasty, but they’re MAGICAL when they’re frozen and turned into fruit poop, er, one-ingredient ice cream.

For best results, transfer the frozen fruit into Glad Freezerware containers, then store in the freezer until ready to use. You’re going to be grateful those lids don’t shatter when you take them off, because you’ll be taking the lids off all. the. time. to make this ice cream.

The lid, the lid, the lid didn’t shatter!

Again, no snitching! I had to smack a hand away from these containers. Alright. I smacked my own hand away, but the point is that you want what’s coming next!

I am not engaging in hyperbole when I tell you this is some of the best tasting stuff I have ever eaten. And look at the banana “ice cream”.

I do so love this plain. I adore it. But if I was to accidentally trip and drizzle a little chocolate syrup on top, I would love it that way, too. Ahem.

We also love blends. Mango/Banana? Two thumbs up. Blueberry/Banana? Big yes! Have fun with it. You have to taste this to believe it. It tastes like soft-serve frozen custard, but it’s good for you. Holy cow. It’s really good for you. It’s FRUIT!

One Ingredient Mango (or Banana) Ice Cream

You'll have to taste it to believe it, but this super-creamy, luscious ice cream is made from just one ingredient! Whether you choose mango or banana or another fruit entirely, you'll be blown away by how decadent frozen fruit can taste when blitzed in a food processor or a juicer with a blank plate. Summer heat doesn't stand a chance when you have this recipe under your belt!

Ingredients

For Mango 'Ice Cream':

Strips or small chunks of frozen mango
(The equivalent of 1 to 1 1/2 mangos yields one very generous or two medium servings.)

For Banana 'Ice Cream' (Taste like vanilla ice cream):

Strips or small chunks of frozen banana
(1 1/2 bananas are about equal to one very generous or two smaller servings)

Instructions

For Either Flavour of 'Ice Cream' Using a Juicer:

Put the blank plate on your juicer (the one that allows you to make 'whole juice' vs. strained juice.) Add the chunks of frozen fruit to the hopper and press down gently until all the fruit has been extruded.

Either eat immediately for soft-serve texture, or pack gently into a freezerware container, cover and put in the freezer until solid. This is best served the day it is made, but can be stored longer and softened slightly at room temperature before serving later.

For Either Flavour of 'Ice Cream' Using a Food Processor:

Put the chunks of frozen fruit into a food processor work bowl that has been fitted with a metal blade. Put the lid in place and process until it is a soft-serve consistency. You may find you need to stop the food processor to scrape down the sides occasionally.

Serve immediately like soft-serve, or pack into freezerware containers, cover and put into the freezer until solid. This is best served the day it is made, but can be stored longer and softened slightly at room temperature before serving later.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/06/08/one-ingredient-mango-or-banana-ice-cream/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received Glad Freezerware but the opinions contained in the post are entirely my own. I really do love these containers. For more information on the new Glad Freezerware containers, visit their Facebook page.