Pudding!

I am seriously surprised at the lack of pudding recipes out there. I want a cookbook of just old-fashioned, homemade from scratch desserts.

Seriously, there is something wrong with the world when you go to a popular recipe site, search for "banana pudding" and the majority of recipes instruct you to make a packet of instant vanilla pudding and add Cool Whip and sliced bananas to it. That is not a recipe.

I am appalled. Pudding deserves better! Because pudding is awesome.

Pudding has my favorite things in it. Eggs, milk, vanilla. I love it. Why haven't I made it before? I do not know. I don't have a big sweet tooth, but pudding just sounds good right now. Creamy and soothing to my poor, battered tummy.

First I made chocolate pudding. Then banana. Then I was hooked. I determined I would make any kind of homemade pudding recipe I could find. So, here comes some pudding recipes!

Do you remember making gravy for the first time? Real whipped cream? Cheese sauce? It's so easy, so amazingly delicious you can't believe people buy it in a can, jar or box. You are embarrassed that you once enjoyed the instant version of these simple, homemade dishes. That is how I feel about pudding. Easy, fast, yummy. There is no way I can buy Jello again (sorry Jello).

Nick loved the dark chocolate pudding the best, but he ate it all before I could place it into a pretty bowl and take a picture. I also thought it wasn't thick enough, so I am giving it another try. Also going to try butterscotch pudding again because it wasn't quite what I was dreaming of.

The banana pudding however, rocked. It was so, so delicious. We topped it with a dollop of homemade whipped cream and I was very happy. We all enjoyed it...so here's that recipe and some pics! :)

This is how awesome Connor is. He ate some banana pudding, then sat it aside and happily scarfed down a good portion of vegetable soup. Then had a few more bites of pudding. :)

Banana Custard Pudding

In a medium saucepan combine:

1/4 cup sugar, 1 TB cornstarch, and 1/8 tsp salt over medium heat. Gradually add 1 1/2 cups milk, cook and stir till milk boils. Cook about 2 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk 3 egg yolks. Add a small amount of heated milk mixture to the yolks and beat. Add all of it back into the saucepan. Cook and stir until thick. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp vanilla. Pour into a bowl or individual dessert bowls. Chill at least one hour. Fold in sliced banana. I just layered sliced banana on top with whipped cream and let people mix it themselves.

I liked that the pudding itself was not super sweet. This only makes 3 small servings; next time I am going to double the recipe. Yum yum! Oh and I am very sorry but I have no idea where I got this recipe. I searched all over and found one, jotted it down in my notebook and that was that. I know I ought to give credit where credit is due...so I'll try to find the link one of these days! :)