Posts Tagged ‘dessert’

Tapioca Pudding

As three of our four chickens are now laying eggs, I was looking around for some egg recipes and remembered how much my husband loves tapioca pudding. I had organic pearls in the cupboard so I decided to make pudding.  It’s easy to make pudding from scratch and so good!

Look at the instructions on the package of tapioca that you buy. Some small pearl tapioca requires overnight soaking in water. If your package has that requirement, reduce the milk in the recipe to 2 1/2 cups from 3 cups.

Ingredients

    * 1/2 cup organic small pearl tapioca (Do not use instant tapioca)

    * 3 cups whole real, raw milk

    * 1/4 teaspoon salt

    * 2 eggs, preferably organic and pasture – or backyard – raised

    * 1/2 cup of organic sugar or Rapadura sugar

    * 1/2 teaspoon of organic vanilla

    * 1/2 teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg

Directions:

1 –  Combine tapioca, milk, and salt in 1 1/2 quart pan on medium high heat. Stir until boiling. Simmer 5 minutes, uncovered at the lowest possible heat, adding sugar gradually.

2 –  Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Mix in some of the hot tapioca very slowly to equalize the temperature of the two mixtures (to avoid curdling).

3 –  Return eggs to pan with tapioca. Slowly bring mixture barely to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and stir several minutes at a low simmer, stirring constantly until you get a nice thick pudding consistency. Cool 15 minutes. Add vanilla and nutmeg. You can spoon the pudding into individual serving bowls or into a covered casserole.  We like to chill it in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving, but you can serve it either warm or chilled.

Serves 4-6.

Read more great, Real Food Wednesday Posts here:  http://www.cheeseslave.com/2010/01/06/real-food-wednesday-january-6-2010/

Peanut Butter Cups

12 mini cupcake liners – make sure to use mini’s

¾ cup organic semisweet chocolate chips

½ cup creamy organic peanut butter + 2 generous T to add to the melted chocolate

¼ cup organic powdered sugar

½ tsp. organic vanilla extract

Pinch fine sea salt or Celtic salt – if your PB is already salted, it’s optional to add more

One of our kids gave me ‘The Chocolate Factory’ a few years ago for Christmas. He likes chocolate. LOL So occasionally, especially around the holidays I make treats. This was a great recipe and a close, but much healthier version of the store bought Peanut Butter cup.  Aren’t they pretty? They’re delicious too!

Using a small double boiler (or The Chocolate Factory melting pot) melt the chocolate.

(You can also melt the chips in your microwave, keeping a close eye on them and stirring often to make sure they don’t burn. It should take between 1-2 minutes.) If you can’t find organic chocolate chips, find some without soy lecithin (Trader Joe’s has some) as all non-organic soy lecithin is genetically modified.

Once the chocolate is melted, add the 2 generous T of peanut butter and stir to incorporate.

Give it about 5 minutes to cool down a bit, it’s easier to spread around when not lava-hot.

Place a heaping teaspoon of melted chocolate in each mini cupcake liner and spread it all over the place with the back of a spoon. Repeat with all 12 liners.

Place the chocolate-covered liners onto a plate, into your fridge, to let it all harden.

Meanwhile, stir together peanut butter, vanilla, salt, and sugar. If your peanut butter is anything like mine, it should form a sort of paste that you can start kneading to make sure all gets incorporated really well.

The chocolate should be hard by now, so divide peanut butter paste into all 12 liners, pressing down gently to make sure the paste goes everywhere.

Top with heaping teaspoon of chocolate [melt it again if needed], spreading carefully so that none of the PB paste can be seen.

Chill in fridge for at least one hour, until ready to devour. Enjoy!

Yield: 12 “small” cups

Read more great Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/12/pennywise-platter-thursday-1210.html

Read more great, Real Food Wednesday Posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2009/12/real-food-wednesday-12909.html

Every November I make Pumpkin pies. Usually a lot of them, as we have friends who love them. We buy organic pumpkin close to Halloween, don’t carve them and then roast them right before Thanksgiving.

To roast them, I cut them in half and scoop out the seeds – we make toasted pumpkin seeds with those – then I quarter the pumpkin. Put the pumpkin quarters on a baking sheet and roast at 350º for around an hour until nice and fork tender. It will vary depending on how big the pumpkins are.

Once they’re roasted, let them cool, then scoop them out of the skin and puree in a food processor or blender until smooth. You can refrigerate the puree for up to three days or freeze it. We use the puree for pies mostly, but also pumpkin bars, cookies and muffins on occasion.  Using fresh pumpkin is less expensive and much more delicious as well.

Here’s our favorite recipe. It makes two, 9-inch pies. Quite often I double it and make four.

Ingredients:

3 cups pumpkin puree – we use fresh but you can of course, used canned pumpkin (not pie filling).

¾ cup Honey

2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie seasoning

1 tsp. salt

4 organic eggs

1 cup milk  – we use raw milk but you can use any kind, even rice or soymilk

2 pie shells – we usually use whole wheat

Mix ingredients in the order given.

Pour into pie shell and bake,

10 minutes at 450º

40 minutes at 350º, or until firm and set.

Let cool to room temperature, or chill in the refrigerator and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  You can also wrapped the cooled pies well and freeze.  Enjoy!

Read more, great posts at Pennywise Platter Thurdays here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/12/pennywise-platter-thursday-123.html

Read more, great posts at Real Food Wednesday here: http://www.cheeseslave.com/2009/12/02/real-food-wednesday-december-2-2009/