Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

 

Unfortunately, I could only take one picture of this sinful dessert because I ate it so fast. I was super duper scared while making this recipe because it looked like a watery mess before I put it in the oven, since you pour hot water on top to get the "pudding" consistency.  But it comes together very fast and the result was so perfect.  It's amazingly chocolatey, rich, sweet, fudgey, and totally blissful.  There's a rich chocolate pudding layer below the moist, chocolate cake layer.  This tastes the best warm from the oven (I recommend topping it with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream for a full hot fudge brownie sundae affect), but it's also very good as a pudding, cold in the fridge the next day. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 3/4 cups hot water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Grease a 9x9-inch baking pan.
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, white sugar, 2 tablespoon cocoa powder, and salt in a large bowl.
4. Stir in milk, vanilla and butter until smooth.
5. Spread batter evenly in the prepared baking pan.
6. Mix 1/4 cup cocoa and brown sugar in a small bowl; sprinkle mixture on top of the batter.
7. Pour hot water over the batter.
8. Bake in the preheated oven until the center of the cake is almost set, about 45 minutes. Brown sugar, cocoa, and hot water will combine to form a chocolate sauce that will settle to the bottom of the cake during baking.
9. Let sit for at least 15 minutes before serving.
10. Best served warm.  Top with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream if desired.

Vanilla Pudding Pie in a Nilla Wafer Crust

  

 

A few days ago, I realized we had a bunch of Nilla Wafers in the pantry, and they were gonna expire soon, so I decided to use them up by making a crust for a pie out of them.  I absolutely love Nilla Wafers...they're one of my favorite snacks...especially in banana pudding.  So I knew that a crust would taste amazing made out of them.  We also had some vanilla pudding mix in the pantry, so I figured: Why not?  I made the pudding as directed, added some banana slices,  poured it into the pie crust, topped it with some whipped cream, and Wah-La!  I had created an incredibly easy, but oh-so-very-yummy pie.  I do have one confession: I do not think this is as quite as good as my banana cream pie (here), simply because the vanilla pudding in that recipe is home made, and I love that sugar cookie crust even more than this Nilla Wafer one.  But this recipe is much easier and quicker to make and I think the crust is very unique and a fantastic way to use up left over Nilla Wafers.  Even though it's not quite as good as my banana cream pie, it's still insanely good!!  I highly recommend both.


Ingredients:
1.5 cups nilla wafer crumbs (about 40 cookies)
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
4-5 medium bananas (optional)
1 package vanilla pudding mix
1 3/4 cup milk
1 tub cool whip, thawed
Garnish: banana slices, Nilla Wafer crumbs, Nilla wafer cookies (optional)


Instructions: 
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine cookie crumbs, white sugar, and melted butter.  Pat into the bottom of a pie pan, and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until edges are very lightly browned.  Cool completely.
2.  Line cooled crust with banana slices - enough to completely cover the pie - if desired.  Beat pudding mix with milk for about 2-3 minutes, or until thick. Pour over cooled crust and/or banana slices.  Top with desired amount of thawed cool whip.  Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

Easiest Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Banana Pudding

This is seriously way too easy.  It's ten times better than any banana pudding I've ever had, and it's by far the quickest and simplest to make.  The secret ingredient for this creamy and luscious dessert is overly ripe bananas. Just whizz up some frozen bananas with peanut butter and cocoa powder.  That's all there is to it.  Feel free to add other toppings as well...I often add nutella and/or whipped cream. You can even freeze the pudding for an hour and enjoy it like ice cream. Yum! 


Yield: About 2-4 servings


Ingredients:
2 medium, very ripe bananas, peeled and sliced (the riper the better!)
4 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons cocoa powder  (and/or nutella)


Instructions:
1. Place the banana slices on a plate lined with parchment paper.  Freeze for about 2 hours.
2.  In a food processor, combine frozen bananas, peanut butter, and cocoa powder.  Process until thick and smooth. Serve immediately.

Butterscotch Pudding

Mmmm...butterscotch.  What an incredible flavor...there are so many words to describe it: sweet, rich, buttery, slightly salty, creamy, warm, caramel-y, and oh so delicious!  I could eat an entire bag of butterscotch chips in one sitting.  They're just so yummy and scarily addicting!  I even like them more than chocolate chips.  Although, this pudding does not taste quite like butterscotch chips..it's more like a rich vanilla pudding. It's primarily made with brown sugar and butter - two of the most spectacular ingredients known to man. If you like butterscotch, you will like this recipe...but even if you don't like butterscotch, you will very much enjoy it as well.

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp butter, salted or unsalted
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 tsp coarse sea salt
3 Tbsp flour 
2½ cups milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add brown sugar and salt; stir until the sugar is well-moistened. Remove from heat.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour and 1/4 cup milk until smooth (there should be no visible pills of flour). Whisk in the eggs.

3. Gradually pour remaining milk into the melted brown sugar, whisking constantly, then whisk in the flour mixture as well.

4. Return pan to heat and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking frequently. Once it begins to bubble, reduce the heat to a low simmer and continue to cook for one minute, whisking non-stop, until the pudding thickens to the consistency of hot fudge sauce.

5. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. If slightly curdled looking, carefully blend the pudding in a food processor or blender, in two batches, until smooth.

6. Pour into 4-6 serving glasses or custard cups and chill thoroughly, at least four hours, before serving.

Chocolate Cinnamon Pudding Pops

      When I was a kid, I would run home from the bus stop and give my mom a big bear hug.  She always surprised me with an after school snack: soft pretzals, ice cream, brownies, cookies, popsicles, etc.  When it was a popsicle day, we would sit on my back porch together and lick our popsicles under in the warm sun.  Our favorites were either the 100% natural strawberry fruit bars, or the chocolate skinny cows.  We would lick them as fast as we could if it was melting - my mom would always bite hers and cheat, but I never did because I hate biting popsicles...licking them makes it last longer and I can enjoy it more - and when we licked the stick clean, we'd always read those cheezy jokes to each other.  Ahh the good-ole-days.  I decided to bring some of those memories back by creating a pop that tastes very similar to those skinny cows, but with cinnamon.  You can leave the cinnamon out if you want, but I like the extra pizazz.  The smooth texture of these pudding pops are very comforting and take me back to those days when I licked popsicles with my mom.


Ingredients:
3 tablespoons flour or cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon


Directions:
1. In a small bowl, combine flour and water to form a paste
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, stir together milk, vanilla, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and flour (or cornstarch).  Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture boils.  Continue to cook and stir until mixture thickens.  Remove from heat.  Pudding will continue to thicken as it cools.  Allow to cool 5 minutes, then pour into Popsicle molds.  Place in the freezer until frozen (preferably overnight).


Do you know any cheezy jokes from your past lollipop sticks? I'd love to hear some(: