Vanilla Bean Pudding

By Vickie

I saw this recipe in a "Cooking Light" magazine and thought the picture looked amazingly delicious. Since my husband is a big pudding fan, I thought I would try my hand at "authentic pudding-making" (without the box : )

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 C reduced fat milk
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 3/4 C sugar
• 3 TBS. corn starch
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/4 C half and half
• 2 large egg yolks
• 4 tsp. butter

Preparation

Step 1

1. Place milk in a medium, heavy sauce pan. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean; add seeds and bean to milk. Bring to boil.

2. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt stirring well. Combine half and half and egg yolks, stirring well. Stir in egg yolk mixture into sugar mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Gradually add half of hot milk to sugar mixture. Return hot milk mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 1 min. stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add butter, stirring until melted. Remove vanilla bean; discard.

3. Spoon pudding into a bowl. place bowl in a large ice-filled bowl for 15 min. or until pudding cools, stirring occasionally. Cover surface of pudding with plastic wrap; chill. yield 6, 1/2 C servings.