I've recently made a wonderful discovery -- most Jello Instant Puddings are vegan. The milk you would usually make them with isn't of course, but that can be remedied. Soy milk doesn't have enough fat in it to get the pudding to set up, but coconut milk has enough and more! In place of the 2 cups cow's milk called for, I make it with 1 1/2 cups coconut milk and 1/2 cup soy milk, and voila! Instant vegan pudding.
I don't like to eat the pudding straight as it is, with that amount of fat in it {although it's good for getting some extra fat and calories into Supertoddler on days when he's not eating enough}. However, pudding made in this manner is PERFECT for filling cupcakes.
In the cupcake pictured above, I used the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, poked my finger in the middle of the cooled cupcake, and piped the pudding right into the middle. I then covered the cupcake with gnache {you can also use vegan buttercream frosting}. It resulted in a delicious "Boston Cream Pie" cupcake, perfectly rich and decadent.
The flavor combinations are endless: pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes with "cheesecake" filling and cinnamon buttercream frosting, vanilla cupcakes with chocolate filling and chocolate butter cream...use your imagination.
I've gotten dozens more compliments on my cupcakes since I started filling them with pudding, and little do they know...I cheated. Shhh...don't tell.
Oh WOW!! Thank you for the great tip! I've been wondering about making pudding.
ReplyDeleteI remember in my pre-vegan days using skim milk to make pudding, and it seemed to work fine. Is it the protein in dairy milk that also makes the pudding work? You would think just soy would work too, since it has a decent amount of protein in it too. Either way, pudding made with coconut milk sounds fantastic!!