Presenting Rochelle & her Coffee Granita with Chocolate and Vanilla pudding

Since joining foodbuzz, I have met and grew to know more food bloggers from everywhere. America, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Canada and the list goes on. My third guest blogger, Rochelle of Acquired Taste, is currently living in Canada with her hubby and son. I am not sure why but I was really drawn to her style of blogging and to her as a person. She is such a genuine person, easy going and a great mum and wife. These qualities really shows in the way she writes about her food and family. I just love reading her stories.

Canada is heading towards winter and Rochelle was still able to come up with such a sweet and cooling delight. Bless her kind soul!

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When I heard that Penny was going to be going to Bali and asked me to be a guest blogger, I jumped at the chance. I’ve never been a guest blogger and I felt honored that she would ask me to do a post for her.

As it’s almost summer in Australia, Penny requested I do a summer dessert for my post. I had to really think about it because it may be almost summer there, but here it’s almost winter! I don’t have access to summer time fruits and things or they are over priced because they are out of season. I thought hard and decided the one thing that is great for summer, other than fruit, is something frozen. Ice cream crossed my mind, but seeing as I don’t have an ice cream maker, I wanted to come up with something more creative (plus Penny had just done a post on Ben & Jerry’s a few days ago!).

I looked around my kitchen to see what I could make that would make for a good summer treat that perhaps could be frozen. I saw the coffee and suddenly had an idea. I tend to like to make a coffee slushy type of thing when it’s hot outside to help cool down instead of hot coffee, but I didn’t want to do that exactly as lots of people do it. I decided that instead of either blending or crushing ice and pouring coffee over it, I would freeze the coffee and make a granita out of it.

Frozen coffee pudding dessert

I put about 2 cups of cool coffee with about 1 teaspoon (or a small packet) of sugar stirred into a container to let it start freezing. Every 10 – 20 minutes I took the container out of the freezer, using a fork, break the top layer of ice and stir up the coffee to keep it from freezing solid and form ice crystals. After a few times of doing this I found a glass and scooped enough in to fill it almost half way up the glass then back into the freezer before it melted. This cools the glass and if any of the ice melts it’ll re-freeze and you can break it up again before going on to the next step.

This is where I decided to get a little creative and do more than your average granita. I like cream/milk in my coffee. I thought about a whipped cream but decided against it. Instead I chose to do vanilla and chocolate pudding. Let the pudding cool in the freezer for about 5 – 10 minutes before scooping it out and putting it in your glass. Back into the freezer for another 5 -10 minutes, then top with more of the coffee granita and top with the chocolate pudding. I also sprinkled a few instant coffee grounds on top just to give it a little more coffee flavor.

frozen coffee pudding dessert

I used an already made pudding, but as I do know many people like to do their cooking by hand I searched up a basic pudding recipe which I found here at Barry Farm.

Basic Pudding

• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoon cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 cup milk
• 1 well-beaten egg
• 2 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

1. In a pan, blend together the dry ingredients and add milk.  Cook over medium heat stirring until thickened and bubbly.
2. Cook 2 more minutes and remove from heat.
3. Stir small amount of hot mix into egg and then return all to hot mix.  Cook and stir 2 more mins.
4. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.  Pour into serving dishes and chill.

frozen coffee pudding dessert

VARIATIONS:

CHOCOLATE PUDDING: Increase sugar to 1 cup and add 2 –1oz.  squares of unsweetened chocolate along with milk.

BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING:   Change sugar to brown sugar and increase butter to 3 T.

COCONUT  PUDDING:  Stir in ½ c. flaked coconut to pudding before  chilling.

I suggest eating this right away or within 10 – 20 minutes (putting it of course back into the freezer) as it will melt but with the cold cup it keeps it from melting too quickly.

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My stay in Bali is ending soon and it is time to head back to lovely Melbourne and reality. Boooo! I need to thank Divina, Lisa & Rochelle for giving me a helping hand during this time away and keeping this blog alive and kicking. I hope that it had been fun for them and I have decided that I will like to continue inviting guest bloggers but it will have a different theme each time.

I need some suggestions fellow bloggers and friends. Please help!