Delightful Homemade Custard Cups and Boston Cream Pie

I am a pudding lover! I love homemade pudding, Jell-o pudding, and everything in between. The smooth texture, refreshing coolness, and the fact it is a 'somewhat' low fat treat, makes pudding one of my favorite treats! The other day we were having family over and I wanted a different dessert for a change. I decided to make a pudding parfait with all sorts of different puddings and toppings. It was delicious!

Yes, you could make instant pudding, but these recipes were SUPER easy and SO much better than a boxed pudding. Not only is this pudding delicious, but it uses basic food storage ingredients. These puddings are a great way to use up the dry powdered milk in your storage. (ALL of the ingredients can be stored long term except for the egg. Powdered eggs will not work, you can just leave the eggs out and simmer for an extra minute or so until thick. These recipes thicken up really quickly, so you don't really even need the egg yolk :)
*I adapted the recipes from the cookbook What's for Dinner?


Here are the three puddings I tried and LOVED:

French Vanilla Pudding
2/3 c. sugar
1/4 t. salt
2 T. flour
2 T. cornstarch
1 can evaporated milk
1 1/3 c. water
4 T. powdered milk
1 egg yolk
1 t. vanilla

Combine dry ingredients in a saucepan. Gradually stir in evaporated milk and water. Over medium heat, bring to boil, stirring constantly. Let boil one minute. Beat egg yolk in a small bowl and stir in a small amount of hot mixture. Pour into pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool, stirring often. Serve warm or chilled.

Butterscotch Pudding
1/2 c. butter
4 T. cornstarch
1 c. brown sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1 c. water
3 T. powdered milk
2 egg yolks
1/2 t. vanilla

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir together , dry milk, and sugar. Stir in water and evaporated milk. Whisk until smooth. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Beat egg yolks slightly and add a little hot mixture stirring until blended. Add to saucepan and bring to a boil again. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Serve warm or chilled.

Dark Chocolate Pudding
1 egg
2/3 c. cocoa powder
3 T. cornstarch
1 can evaporated milk
1 1/3 c. warm water
4 T. powdered milk
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 t. vanilla

In a small bowl, beat egg and set aside. Combine cocoa, powdered milk, and cornstarch in a separate bowl. Whisk 1 c. evaporated milk into cocoa mixture until completely smooth. In a large saucepan, combine remaining milk, sugar, water, and salt. Mix well. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, whisking constantly. REmove pan from heat. Whisk cocoa mixture into hot milk mixture. Bring to a boil over medium heat; boil for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Remove pan from heat. Gradually whisk 1 c. of hot cocoa mixture into the egg. Pour mixture back into pan. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Do not boil. Remove pan from heat. Add vanilla; blend well. Pour mousse into serving dishes. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

*In all of the above recipes 1 c. of milk was substituted for 1 c. of warm water and 3 T. dry powdered milk. This is a GREAT trick to using up your powdered milk. With the sugar and vanilla in the pudding you can't tell you used powdered milk. It makes for inexpensive AND delicious pudding!

A couple days later we still had leftover pudding (I doubled each of the recipes), so I decided to make a Boston Cream Pie. This is a SIMPLE cake recipe (I don't know why it is called a 'pie'??) All you do is make a regular Butter Yellow Cake mix, making as directed PLUS one small package of instant vanilla pudding. Put the cake into two round pans. Take out the cakes from the pans and cut the cakes in half (giving you four thin layers of cake). Put a layer of vanilla pudding in between each layer (you can also add a chocolate layer of pudding if you would like). Top the cake with a thick chocolate glaze (recipe below). Put the cake into the fridge until ready to serve. YUM!

Chocolate Glaze
2 T. butter
3 T. cocoa
2 T. hot water
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa and hot water and stir until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and stir until smooth.

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Delicious recipe for homemade toffee and sugar cookies on our blog www.dealstomeals.blogspot.com

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My favorite cinnamon roll recipe!

I am a BIG fan of cinnamon rolls and can not count the number of different recipes I have tried over the years. Some are too gooey, some too dry, some too thick, some that don't raise, etc. I have a friend Camille that is famous for her AMAZING cinnamon rolls. They are always the perfect texture, the frosting is PERFECT, and they are light and airy. So..I finally got the recipe from her and WOW, they are delicious! I don't think I will try another cinnamon roll recipe again. My only alteration would be that I would maybe 1 1/2 times the frosting recipe..I like a lot of frosting!

Now, my picture does NOT do these cinnamon rolls justice. I had to make FOUR pans of cinnamon rolls (64 rolls) for a church activity and when I got home there were only four cinnamon rolls left. After the children got to them for breakfast, there was ONE lone cinnamon roll left :( So, here is the day-old LAST cinnamon roll left on my pile of four cookie sheets...to show you just how GOOD they are and how fast they go!

Perfect Cinnamon Rolls
1 c. warm milk
1/3 c. melted butter
2 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
1 t. salt
4 c. flour
1 T. yeast

Put warm milk, sugar and yeast into your mixer and mix for a minute until combined. Let the yeast grow until foamy and bubbly (about 5-10 minutes). Then add the eggs, butter, flour, and salt and combine until smooth and mixted together. Let dough sit in the bowl until it has doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hours). When it has doubled, put a small amount of flour on the counter and pour the dough onto the counter. Roll dough out until it measures 16 inches x 21 inches.

Filling:
1 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 T. cinnamon
1/3 c. melted butter
Melt butter and spread on dough rectangle. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle all over buttered dough. Roll up and cut into 16 equal rolls.

Place rolls on greased cookie sheet 4 across and 4 down. Cover w/ greased plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour). Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes.

Frosting:
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. cream cheese
1/2 t. vanilla
1/8 t. salt

Frost 1-2 minutes after finished baking.

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Super easy and delicious macaroons

If you love macaroons as much as I do, this recipe couldn't get any easier! After I made them I realized that these cookies are a food storage recipe. Who wouldn't want a year supply of macaroons? I would!

Here is this awesome recipe! You may need to double the recipe if you love them, ours were gone within a few minutes!

Easy Chocolate Dipped Macaroons
8 oz. chocolate chips, melted in microwave until smooth
12 oz. sweetened coconut flakes
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 T. vanilla
¼ t. salt
2 T. flour

Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler (or in the microwave) until smooth. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients until well mixed. Drop by tablespoons onto a parchment lined sheet pan. Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool and up half way into chocolate. Let drip on a cooling rack. Makes 18.

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