TWD: Split Level Pudding - Vanilla and Chocolate Hazelnut

My participation in Tuesdays with Dorie has obviously become rather sporadic of late. I'm thinking with the line-up of recipes for October that I should be able to manage for the most part, but who knows, right?

Anyway, I did get my act together enough to make this week's recipe, chosen by Garrett of Flavor of Vanilla, for the Split Level Pudding - in my case with a layer of Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut spread, that, though not as smooth, definitely rivals Nutella in a taste test. The recipe for the spread comes from Gale Gand and as soon as I get organized just a bit more, I will share the recipe here as well.

The only other change I made to the recipe was to make a one-third portion, which was just perfect for two 4 oz servings, which is all I needed since it was only myself and my two little kiddos eating the pudding. I layered about two tablespoons of the chocolate hazelnut spread in the bottom of each ramekin and then made the pudding, which literally took about 5 minutes. I skipped all the stovetop directions and food processor as well since it was such a small amount to manage. If I were making the full version of the recipe, I would probably go ahead and take advantage of the food processor, but the microwave was just faster and easier in this case.

I really enjoyed the pudding - which was a little surprising for me since I usually don't enjoy puddings much at all (unless they are in a pie or tart shell). I think I liked it more here because of the texture of the hazelnut spread - and of course all those pretty chocolate curls on top don't hurt anything either!

I am still bummed at myself that I didn't get my act together enough to make the tart last week, and it is definitely on my to-do list for some time when I have more energy and time because I've had that recipe bookmarked for a long time.

My apologies to my fellow TWDer's for all my slacking lately, but since I know you understand, I won't whine about it more here. As for my pregnancy, it is going as well as we can expect - which is to say, I'm still sick and we're still waiting to see what happens when the third trimester rolls around in a few weeks. In the meantime, I've started feeling the baby bumping around in there, so that is good and on time. We still haven't found out what we are having since the Doctor wants to do an in depth ultrasound with us on the 15th - so an announcement one way or the other is eminent!

Thank you again and again you all for visiting! I treasure all your comments and hope to get some time and energy soon visit your blogs and get caught up - I have been so out of touch!

TWD: Real Butterscotch Pudding

Wow. I have to just say, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, this holiday season is totally kicking my trash. Assuming that things slow down a bit, I will be extremely grateful when they do. I don't know if it is just in part due to the fact that I completely skipped out on the entire holiday season craziness to spend the winter last year in the house with the kids or what, but I am just beyond out of practice. Anyway...

Yesterday was my 10 year wedding anniversary. I felt like I deserved some kind of badge of honor for making it since it hasn't been easy, but I settled for doughnuts instead. Since the recipe for this week, chosen by Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases was for Dorie's Real Butterscotch Pudding, I have been wracking my brain trying to decide what I would do with the pudding. I thought about tarts, but I figured that would probably be done quite a bit (and for good reason) but I wanted to try to be different. Besides, when I do get around to making butterscotch tarts, I think it is going to have to be the ones Peabody made a while back.

I have had this recipe bookmarked for a while over at Peanut Butter & Julie is a fellow Giada fan I thought I would give this a go. The only change I made to the original recipe was to sub the cappuccino filling with - you guessed it - butterscotch pudding. I wanted it to be a bit lighter than regular pudding though, so I whipped about 3/4 cup of whipping cream with about 1 Tablespoon of sugar and a splash of vanilla, then folded that into the well chilled pudding, before piping it into the doughnuts.

It was fun to make them that way, and for good measure to make a few doughnuts with this chocolate glaze (which is THE BEST chocolate glaze for doughnuts ever). One caution with the doughnuts is to be sure your oil is the correct temperature. On a few, mine was not, and the doughnuts were well done on the outside and still doughy in the middle.

What I really enjoyed though, was eating the pudding exactly as Dorie suggests in the book - with a little whipped cream and some buttered pecans. Awesome.

The flavor of the pudding is not quite caramel, more buttery and it was a bit difficult to quite put my finger on what the elusive flavor reminded me of. Not really butterscotch candies, more of like a Werther's candy, but still, not quite. Suffice it to say that butterscotch really is it's own flavor and I am a big fan.

The only other change I made was to just substitute vanilla for the scotch, which of course some would argue makes it not butterscotch, but, oh well. It is what it is... and what it is, is good. UPDATE:  Oh, and by the way, if Shuna says that butterscotch can have nothing to do with alcohol, then I'm with her.

Now, go see what the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie crowd came up with this week.

TWD: Chocolate Pudding AND Pudding Pops!

I have a bit of a confession that I am happy to own up to. When I read that this week's recipe pick from Melissa of Its Melissa's Kitchen was for the Chocolate Pudding I was both excited and, honestly, not that excited. You see, I recently made a homemade Chocolate Pudding, and it just wasn't that good. I felt like I wasted the ingredients. It was too thick and it just wasn't, well, all that I dreamed it would be - partly I think it was due to too much melted chocolate.

So, on the one hand, I was excited to try again with this recipe from Dorie and to be making something chocolate this week, but I was also afraid of another let down in the pudding department.

Well - no disappointment here. I can't begin to tell you how very, very, very good this recipe is. If you like chocolate even a little, or if you like pudding only a little, well, this would be the recipe that could forever convert you into wanting to eat bowlful after bowlful. It is THAT GOOD.

I had planned to make mine into a pie, because that was always the way I liked it best - as in, I haven't had a pudding before that could stand up to what I wanted it to be on its own. That was before. Honestly, I ended up devouring one whole serving still warm from the pot. After that I made two 3/4 cup ramekins and put the rest into popcicle molds. Those are still freezing so I'll have to let you know how they turn out later. I also later ate some more after giving the pudding a chance to set up abd even dipped in a few of the chocolate sable wedges from our zoo picnic the other day. Still really, really goooood - the pudding and the cookies.

OK, enough raving and ranting from me - make sure to go and check out what all the other Tuesdays with Dorie fabulous folks are up to this week! (And get the book already! You need it!)

UPDATE! Look! Pudding Pops! And they ROCK!!!

FYI - I won the popsicle mold at a raffle, but you can get them from Amazon too -
they have tons of other cute molds on there too!