Gluten Free & Dairy Free Cream Pie

I love pudding, for years I did not get any because I didn't have a good dairy free pudding, now I do. The pudding can be used in anything (cream puffs, trifle, as is, etc.).

I would use this graham cracker pie crust recipe. 

Pudding filling:

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons cornstarch

¼ teaspoon salt

2 ¾ cup milk*

4 egg yolks or 2 eggs

4 tablespoons butter

In a medium sized saucepan, whisk sugar, cornstarch and salt (if you want chocolate pudding add 2 to 3 tablespoons cocoa powder now). Whisk in milk, bring pudding to a boil. It should thicken nicely. In a separate bowl beat the 2 eggs or 4 yolks then gradually add pudding while stirring constantly.  Slowly pour the pudding and egg mixture back into the saucepan, stir constantly.  This process helps the eggs to not clump when they cook. You have to be more careful at his point if you used the 2 eggs. To be honest 4 yolks makes a nicer pudding, but sometimes I just don’t have 4 eggs to spare or want to bother separating them.  Return pudding to a boil, then remove from the heat and add the butter. You can pour it right into the pie crust now, if you want to add berries into the pudding, let it cool first. Refrigerate. 

*Milk:  I like almond milk best, however I have also had success with soy milk, hemp milk, coconut milk and flax milk.  Do not use rice milk, it does not stay thick.  Or if you can, cow milk works great too.  

Variations: Coconut Cream (be careful if toasting the coconut – and I think you should- coconut burns easily), Banana Cream, Chocolate, Berry.  They are all yummy.

Note: 1. For a no butter version-completely dairy free, just make the cookies with whatever Crisco  alternative you like and skip it altogether in the pudding.

2. This can be made egg free too.  Just skip the eggs and add a little more cornstarch (like 1 tablespoon more).