Dark Chocolate Power Pudding - Gluten and Sugar Free*

Topped with Joseph's no-sugar whipped cream
and frozen cherries and raspberries.

Joseph makes many variations on his chocolate breakfast puddings, but this one was a big hit with our nephew, Matthew. So here it is, just in time for his Christmas birthday! Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Remember that if you eat a little more than half of it, you’ve eaten a pretty good-sized breakfast, containing all your protein (3 eggs), carbohydrate (tapioca), and fruit (banana & raspberry), with a perfect portion left over for a breakfast companion--perhaps a lighter eater of the feminine gender and size? (Double the recipe if you invite one of your brothers to share and use two baking dishes.) 

Eat celery sticks with nut butter on the side for some fresh veggies and you’re good to go 'til lunch time. It’s gluten free, and we usually skip the honey to reduce the sugar hit. Either way, you won’t miss the white refined sugar at all!

  

Dark Chocolate Power Pudding

1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter) or cocoa butter

4 eggs + 2 yolks

12 oz. ripe organic banana (approx. 2–3)

1/3 cup milk

3 tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened (Ghiradelli brand preferred)

3 of the tiny scoops found inside a bottle of Trader Joe’s 100% Pure Organic Stevia Extract, approx. 1/64th plus 1/128th teaspoon*

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (Homemade is best but extract will work) or 1/2 teaspoon ground vanilla beans

Optional: 1 Tablespoon honey or more to taste (Note: Omit if kicking a sugar habit)

1/2 cup Minute Tapioca, uncooked

Prepare a steam bath:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Choose a glass baking dish or pie plate that will fit inside a larger pan holding water, so that the water comes up about an inch along the sides. A large roasting pan works well. It's easiest to put the pans together, measure in the water, then remove your baking dish and place the water-holding pan in the oven to warm. (Choose a baking dish that will make your pudding about as deep as a pie, or you'll have to increase your baking time.)

Melt the ghee in the pie plate by placing it in the warming steam bath for a moment. Then carefully remove the baking dish from the steam bath and set it aside. (Leave the steam bath in the oven.)

Make pudding: 

Using a blender, add the banana, eggs, milk, and blend on low speed. While running, add the cocoa, stevia, and vanilla. If you wish and your eggs are very fresh, taste for sweetness and add optional honey (1 tablespoon to start). It should taste sweeter than you want the end product to taste. Otherwise, trust the recipe and add 1 T. honey. While blender is still running, add tapioca and pour immediately into baking dish, before the tapioca settles. Bake in steam bath for 25 minutes at 375 degrees. Test by inserting knife in center; done when it comes out clean.

Serve warm or cold, with optional raspberry sauce. You can even cut it into little squares and serve as a light dessert to a crowd, serve fresh raspberries on the side, or top with stevia and vanilla sweetened dollops of whipped cream. 

*Back label says, “Stevia Rebaudiana, 45 mg. per scoop” – with NO ADDITIONAL SUGAR-DERIVED ADDITIVES, as you would find in nearly every other brand of stevia product. For more about using plant-derived stevia, read this.

Optional Raspberry Sauce

2 c. frozen raspberries

1 teaspoon Framboise raspberry liqueur

1/4 c. water

1 scoop stevia (as above, one tiny white scoop = 1/64^th teaspoon)

Honey to taste

Place in small saucepan and simmer until thickened. Use cool, warm, or hot as topping. 
*(NOTE: Honey and liqueurs may have a sugar-like impact on your system, so vary this recipe according to your needs. If you're currently trying to kick a sugar habit, use stevia-sweetened whipping cream as a topping instead; it whips up just like cream with sugar would.)

You can see the transparent tapioca balls inside.

 

This creamy variation uses 16 oz. cooked taro root
in place of instant tapioca.