Oh, friends. How I miss the days of simplicity – you know, those days without children. Would I ever wish my children away? Never. Of course. But I do daydream of time spent alone… time spent in silence… time spent doing anything other than cleaning accidents out of underwear and banana peels out of bed sheets.
I remember the days… after all, they weren't that long ago.
I would come home from work to silence. I'd leisurely make a supper of my choosing. Stuart and I would sit at the kitchen table, sipping wine, sharing about our days, talking uninterrupted about whatever dreams came to our mind. These days, supper is… well, not exactly relaxing. Which is why I need to make up little treats along the way.
Treats that comfort my soul.
Treats that pull me back from the motherhood brink of insanity.
You know the brink I'm talking about – the one that you're on when you drive to your sister's house, knock on the door with tears in your eyes, and ask her if you can borrow some shampoo because your fancy salon shampoo got dumped out in the bathtub by two rugrats who were planning ‘bubbles' and the idea of going back to said salon with three children in tow makes you want to cry even harder and you have greasy hair and no way to clean it.
Oh, and by the way, you also wore pajama pants in to pick up said shampoo from said sister. Because you're 5 months pregnant and magically, can no longer pull up any of your pants past your upper knee fat.
And you also have an underwear line in said pajama pants because it happened to be laundry day and all your pretty underwear that don't leave an underwear line were in the washing machine. So, naturally, you were feeling pretty sexy – underwear lines, greasy hair, frail spirit, and dripping mascara.
Yes. That's the brink I'm talking about.
In moments like that, there are sweet moments of pleasure amongst comforting, from scratch treats. So scoop up a bowl, hide yourself in the closet, lock the door, put some French Cafe on Pandora, and pretend like the world is sitting still – if only for a few spoonfuls.
Not that, ahem, I did that or anything.
Homemade Tapioca Pudding
You will need:
– 2/3 cup tapioca pearls
– 1 1/2 cups filtered water
– 4 1/2 cups whole, organic milk
– Large pinch sea salt
– 3 eggs, separated
– 1/2 cup raw honey
– 1/2 cup maple syrup (more, to taste)
– Beans from one vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
- Combine the tapioca pearls and filtered water together in a large saucepan. Set aside for 20 minutes to hydrate.
2. After the hydrating period, add in the milk, sea salt, and egg yolks to the tapioca pearls. Bring the mixture up to a low simmer and allow the mixture to continue lightly boiling for about 10 minutes, stirring often.
3. Remove the pudding from the heat and gently whisk in the raw honey and maple syrup, adding more as desired. After the mixture has cooled for about 15 minutes, gently fold in the vanilla beans.
4. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled. Oh, who am I kidding, it's delicious at every temperature.
Tapioca pudding always makes me nostalgic. I remember my Dad loving tapioca pudding and whenever I eat it, I think of him as a little boy – the youngest of five brothers – and how big of a treat it must have been to get a bowl of this squishy goodness.
I can't get enough!
Which is exactly why I'm eating Bowl #3 as I type this.
What can I say? It's been one of those days.
Once I finish licking my spoon, I'll head to the shower, wash my nasty hair, say a prayer, and get back to it.
After all, the banana peels ain't going to clean themselves up.
And Amen.
Looking for more delicious inspiration? Check out the meal plans I use and love: Real Plans.
Homemade Tapioca Pudding
- 2/3 cup tapioca pearls
- 1 1/2 cups filtered water
- 4 1/2 cups whole (organic milk)
- Large pinch sea salt
- 3 eggs (separated)
- 1/2 cup raw honey
- 1/2 cup maple syrup (more, to taste)
- Beans from one vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Combine the tapioca pearls and filtered water together in a large saucepan. Set aside for 20 minutes to hydrate.
- After the hydrating period, add in the milk, sea salt, and egg yolks to the tapioca pearls. Bring the mixture up to a low simmer and allow the mixture to continue lightly boiling for about 10 minutes, stirring often.
- Remove the pudding from the heat and gently whisk in the raw honey and maple syrup, adding more as desired. After the mixture has cooled for about 15 minutes, gently fold in the vanilla beans.
- Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled. Oh, who am I kidding, it’s delicious at every temperature.
Craving chocolate?
Check out my recipe for Chocolate Mousse!
Yeah… What’s up with that upper knee fat during pregnancy? I can understand pants not fitting because of your belly, but the knee fat had me seriously disturbed this time around.
I do love me some tapioca though.
Tapicoa pudding is one of those foods for me that absolutely SCREAMS childhood – and thank goodness, now for my daughter too. Love that this is a big batch – making this soon! 🙂
Shaye, thanks for the reminder of the tapioca pudding. My mom use to make it when she was alive. My kids use to love going over to the her house for dinner and have tapioca pudding as a dessert. I don’t hfink I need to thawed out some of my frozen goats milk and make some really soon.magain, thanks for the reminder. My mouth is telling me tapioca pudding for dinner dessert!?
Oh, I do love warm tapioca! ? It has been YEARS since I made some. I need to introduce my children to this WONDERFUL treat! What is the best source for tapioca pearls?
It’s extra delicious if you beat the unused egg whites until soft peaks then fold into finished pudding.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has locked oneself in a closet with pudding and pretended the mess would somehow clean itself up.
This recipe is simple and delicious! You are right it is good hot, cold or 9 days old!!
Hi, thanks for posting these great recipes! I really enjoy your blog and reading about your family. I also like your cookbook From Scratch, and I was wondering if you have some more cookbooks you could recommend that you like that feature whole food recipes? Thanks! Marlene
While growing up my mom made a delicious tapioca pudding topped with a layer of butterscotch pudding and then on top of that was a layer of chocolate pudding. I also use tapioca to thicken my jams.
Hi Shaye! I’m hoping you might be able to help me trouble shoot where I went wrong with this. Everything was thick and awesome and tapioca-ish when I turned off the heat, but then I added the sweetener and walked away. When I came back it had reverted to milk consistency. Did I miss a step or maybe not cook it long enough?
Crazy! I have no idea what this could be. My vote would be to get some fresh tapioca and try again! 🙂 Good luck!
Yeah… this happened to me too tonight. 🙁
Has anyone figured this problem out yet? I’ve made this pudding before and it came out perfect, but just tried making another batch and after the sweetener went in the consistency became milky again. Maybe the maple grade has some influence?
Yeah, no. Just made another batch with a different grade maple syrup. Same result. How frustrating. Do you think I could add more soaked tapioca to the finished product to make it thicker? I hate the thought of throwing out yet another batch today.
Exact same problem for us. Nice and thick, took off heat, added honey and syrup and it looks like milk again. Darn. Tastes good but not thick at all.
So strange! Did you try refrigerating it?
I’m wondering about the egg whites.
The ingredients list says eggs separated instead of egg yokes. So did I miss something?
I know all recipes are different. Growing up I remember the whites being beaten and folded in at the end. Or do you not use the whites here?
Audrina, we always whip the whites till frothy then slowly add some sugar (about 2-4 TBS to taste) to it till stiff peaks keep shape when you lift the whisk or hand mixer blades out of the whites. Then we plop the lovely meringue on top of bowls of still warm pudding for each individual’s choice to mix in or just leave it on top for a tasty topping. As to mix or not to mix, it’s split 50/50 in our household, but it all ends up in our happy tummies! Yum!
This looks like such a great recipe and is definitely helpful with the pictures. Being gluten-free I came across another great pudding recipe by celebrity chef Maria Liberati! Both of these recipes look great!
http://www.marialiberati.com/2011/01/12/a-gluten-free-vanilla-cream-pudding/
For those who had runny pudding,remember that raw honey has enzymes that might be causing the problem.I have had thinning in some recipes if my honey was raw.Hope this helps.
First, I did use alternative milk, so I don’t know how much that affected the recipe. However, I have used alternative milk in other puddings and baked goods, and it DID NOT affect the outcome. But, I ended up with soup; wouldn’t thicken no matter what we did. Also, I found the maple syrup overpowering – it didn’t taste like tapioca pudding. Finally, nearly all the tapioca dissolved! I have no idea why. Obviously others have not had the same experience, so, maybe it was the milk in this case.