Modern Homesteading Off Grid – An American Homestead Off Grid Homesteading – Modern Homesteading
I began making homemade pudding several years ago and will never go back. I won’t feed the fake stuff to my family. Making it from scratch takes a little more time and effort, but it is so worth it. And once you taste the difference, you will never want to buy the artificial stuff again. I’ve included my recipes for both vanilla and chocolate, but honestly, I hardly ever make the chocolate because we love the vanilla so much!
You may be wondering how I can technically call this an off grid recipe. It’s actual perfect to use up any extra milk when I have it, milk that might otherwise turn sour. But how do I get my pudding cold without a refrigerator? In the winter, I just set it outside! In the summer, I submerge my canning jars in a fish basket down our well. To read more about how we live without refrigeration, see “10 Ways to Live Without Refrigeration”.
Vanilla Pudding
Servings: 6 (makes 2 pint jars)
3/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
3 cups milk
2 beaten eggs
1 Tbs. butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Combine sugar and flour in a heavy bottomed pan. Add milk and stir until combined. Cook on medium-high heat until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Stir constantly so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. A wire whisk works the best. Remove from heat after it comes to a boil.
Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Temper the eggs by adding hot pudding to them a little at a time. Here’s how you do it: Use a ladle for the pudding and drizzle it into the eggs, stirring them constantly with your wire whisk. You don’t want to scramble the eggs, so keep stirring and only add a little pudding at a time. Keep stirring and adding more pudding until your bowl is full of the egg and pudding mixture.
Pour the hot egg and pudding mixture back into the original pudding. Stir to combine. Heat it again over medium-high heat just until the mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla.
Pour into two pint size canning jars. I use the wide mouth ones. You can use another container, but the jars with lids will keep a “skin” from forming on the top of the pudding as it cools. Leave an inch or more at the top of the jars and allow them to cool a little before putting the lids on. Going from boiling hot to cold refrigeration too quickly could crack your jars.
Chocolate Pudding
Servings: 6 (2 pint jars)
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup flour
2 3/4 cups milk
4 beaten egg yolks
1 Tbs. butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Combine sugar, cocoa powder, and flour in a heavy bottomed pan. Add milk and stir until combined. Cook on medium-high heat until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Stir constantly so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. A wire whisk works the best. Remove from heat after it comes to a boil.
Beat egg yolks in a separate bowl. Temper the eggs by adding hot pudding to them a little at a time. Here’s how you do it: Use a ladle for the pudding and drizzle it into the eggs, stirring them constantly with your wire whisk. You don’t want to scramble the eggs, so keep stirring and only add a little pudding at a time. Keep stirring and adding more pudding until your bowl is full of the egg and pudding mixture.
Pour the hot egg and pudding mixture back into the original pudding. Stir to combine. Heat it again over medium-high heat just until the mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla.
Pour into two pint size canning jars. I use the wide mouth ones. You can use another container, but the jars with lids will keep a “skin” from forming on the top of the pudding as it cools. Leave an inch or more at the top of the jars and allow them to cool a little before putting the lids on. Going from boiling hot to cold refrigeration too quickly could crack your jars.
Here’s my step by step video tutorial for vanilla pudding. Enjoy!
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Jaimie, I love homemade pudding. I use the vanilla one more because you can give it a bit more of a twist on it. Sometimes I will add bananas to it, especially if they are getting soft. Or add coconut. If I have the time I make small pie shells and bake it in them. I have added raspberry jam also. Kids love them.
I love your suggestions Carolin! I used to make banana cream pie a lot and coconut is one of my favorites too. I have never tried jam, but I will have to do that now! You can also stir in some whipped cream and you have an easy mousse. Of course, I would use the chocolate recipe for that. 🙂 I love it that once we learn the basics of cooking, we can play around with things and make our own delicious creations. 🙂
Love homemade pudding & we love watching your great videos 🙂
I also watched your video on plastics; we should all do this. I recently got a jar sealer that can be used with canning jars to keep food fresher, it’s put out by Food Saver. Just snaps on the jar & removes the air in a jiffy. It will help food last longer & what’s great is you can use your used canning lids(as long as they’re not too deformed). I just went through my pantry & put all my bulk items into canning jars. I really like the 1/2 gallon jars for stuff like barley, flour, etc. It’s clean, easy to see what’s in the containers & pretty 🙂
We can’t wait for a new season of American Homestead to start! Y’all take care 🙂
Think I’ll make some this evening. My wife is at her sisters house to help with arrangements for their mothers twin sister’s death. Her mom passed away several years ago also. I think the pudding will be a treat when she get home.
Sid
Hello. I made this pudding last night for the first time and I was so proud. Home made pudding? Wow! The problem is, it’s not thick like pudding. It tastes delicious but it’s very thin. I followed the directions because I was so afraid I was going to mess it up, but it still isn’t right. Any advice or ideas? I’d like to make more but don’t want to make the same mistake twice. Thanks so much!
Absolutely awesome!!! I made the vanilla pudding first…it didn’t even make it long enough in frig to cool completely….my family ate it all! We like warm pudding sometimes. I am making chocolate right now and it smells great. Melted a Hershey bar into it instead of cocoa powder. Our family loves your videos!!!! We first saw you on the homestead channel on roku and have been watching ever since…wish we could be bold enough to live off grid. You are truly blessed. God has been showing my family it’s time to live more simple. Keep the videos coming!!
Jenny
I’ve made cooked cornstarch pudding lots of times, but I notice your recipe doesn’t have cornstarch. I suppose the cornstarch is a “lazy” way to make it thicken. 😀 I’m okay with my level of laziness.
I’m curious, though – why do you pour it into mason jars?
OH! How did I miss your point about the lid. My mother always used a piece of saran wrap to keep the skin from forming. OR – if you stir the pudding a few times as it cools, it doesn’t form a skin. And another option …. yum, yum, eat the skin. 😀
I like to use peanut butter instead of butter and put it in a chocolate cookie crust. Yummy !! Make me wanna go make a batch now.
going to try this choc. pudding right now!!
wonderful vanilla pudding absolutely delicious!!!! I am going to make the chocolate tomorrow and make chocolate pudding pie with homemade pie crust yum :~)
Your show is my favorite show. We have been prepping for 8 years or so and are getting ready to move to a move to land we purchased in a very rural part pf FL. Everything we make is from scratch including cleaning and pest control.
God Bless you and your family
Lisa
Just finished making a double batch of your chocolate pudding recipe. This time I used just a little bit under 3/4 cup of sugar. I also used Dutch cocoa from Walton Feed Rainy Day Foods and arrowroot. Delicious :~)
Now going to make a pie crust!!!
God Bless
Lisa
I made the vanilla last week and oh my it was delicious. My boyfriend is a chef and I can’t cook to save my life but the directions were so easy and he was so impressed. I said why the heck did we ever buy that boxed stuff in the past?! I used organic ingredients and it was simply amazing. The texture and the taste was so good! Thank you for helping me impress my boyfriend. Tonight I am doing the chocolate one. I can’t wait.
Loved the vanilla pudding so much that I doubled the chocolate pudding recipe… And omg I am so glad I did. It was a quick heavenly treat. The more I stirred the thicker and more beautiful it got. Amazing! Thank you again!
This stuff is fantastic. Mandi made a double batch of the vanilla and the chocolate today. The vanilla is really good, especially with a couple of butter cookies on the site. The chocolate is decadent and is my personal favorite. Thanks so much for posting the recipe!
Going to make this tomorrow! I have never made pudding from scratch, plus I have a few bananas to use up. I am enjoying your page immensely!
This looks awesome, if the wife doesn’t make some I may have to put on the chef hat and make a mess in the kitchen myself 🙂
Keep up the great homesteading guys, I am envious!
Hey Jaimie! I am grain free and never tried making pudding. Now that I have lil ones, I would love to give your recipe a go but know arrowroot would be significantly less in amount than using wheat flour. Do you happen to have a measurement for that particular substitute ?