Finding comfort in healthier, no-sugar-added chocolate pudding
You know or should know that I love chocolate pudding; it ranks near the top of my comfort foods list. Here's why.
When the LeanWizard was just a wee wizard, his maternal grandmother, Edna "Nana" Haynes, would take him on a picnic to an Evanston park on Lake Michigan. Nana made her family-favorite egg salad sandwiches and at the end out of her picnic basket would come a wee wizard-size bowl of homemade chocolate pudding.
Later, when the teen-wizard headed off to New York University he shared a studio apartment with a not-a-wizard friend who didn't cook. The TeenWiz knew how to cook a few things. Chocolate pudding wasn't on his short list, so he dabbled in instant pudding, which tasted nothing like his Nana's cooked chocolate pudding.
Several years went by before the young adult wizard tackled making cook-and-serve chocolate pudding. The first time he made it he had the pan's heat set too high and scorched the pudding's chocolate. Not good.
When he became the LeanWizard his life refocused on calories and fat, since there were too many mealtime items that he did not want to go away. One was macaroni and cheese; the other, chocolate pudding.
The LeanWizard turned (unfortunately) to artificially-sweetened cook-and-serve pudding from a box to solve most of pudding's calorie issue. Switching from whole milk to skim milk significantly reduced calories and fat. His lean pudding's flavor was a little thin, but he was busy slashing hundreds of calories from his food plan while happily keeping a favorite comfort food.
As the LeanWizard became a better cook, he began working on a from-scratch homemade chocolate pudding. One thing he learned from reading the side of a box of chocolate pudding was their use of Dutch-processed cocoa.
Dutch-processed cocoa is cocoa processed with alkali producing a deeper color and a bigger chocolate flavor. Just knowing that made his from-scratch chocolate pudding experiments elevate from average to above average.
For a while, on his journey to losing 150 pounds, the LeanWizard made chocolate pudding with two-thirds water and one-third skim milk to cut the calories even further. He could have a big bowl of his no-sugar-added, almost-fat-free (cocoa powder has a little fat) chocolate pudding every night and lose a pound or more every week. S-w-e-e-t.
Times change; now the LeanWizard steers as far as possible away from sugar and carbs. Another pudding challenge, since pudding's classically thickened with cornstarch (91-percent carbohydrate). What to do?
The LeanWizard had been reading about making a cornstarch-free puddinglike dessert using chia seeds. He'd been using chia seeds in his protein shakes for the protein and fiber it delivered, but just didn't get how chia seed pudding worked.
Somehow chia seeds, when added to any liquid, be it water or cow's milk or almond milk magically thicken without cooking; creating a puddling-like consistency.
He started with an online chia seed pudding recipe (minimalistbaker.com) that used chia seeds for thickening and dates or maple syrup for sweetening. The LeanWizard began to experiment with a chia seed chocolate pudding. Too keep carbs as low as possible he used natural organic stevia as a reasonable sweetener substitute and an unsweetened almond milk and coconut milk blend for his first pudding.
His creation was an easy stir-together, no-cooking recipe that required a simple overnight refrigerator stay to reach a puddinglike consistency. However, the LeanWizard was an impatient cook, and noticed that if he used his blender, his pudding would come out of the blender almost thick enough to eat. Brief refrigeration got it to serving consistency.
His chocolate chia pudding turned out much better than he believed it could; plenty sweet with a big vanilla-boosted chocolate flavor and pleasing flavor notes from the almond and coconut milks. However, it wasn't as smooth as a standard pudding. Small price to pay.
Give the LeanWizard's pudding a try. You may just find a better path to a healthier chocolate pudding.
• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at don@ theleanwizard.com.