A week ago, fellow blogger Erin at TexanErin Baking mentioned she was making my chocolate-avocado pudding. She also dropped a hint about wanting a butterscotch version. Of course that sent my head into pudding land and I suddenly had a craving for butterscotch pudding…which is funny because butterscotch is one of my take-it-or-leave-it flavors.
Without any avocados in the house to experiment with, I was determined to find a healthy pudding that was reminiscent of butterscotch. I found this recipe online that inspired my health-ified version. I whipped up (or blended up) this pudding made from carrots, dates and nuts with a hint of maple and almond. I was quite surprised at how yummy it turned out!
Confession, I don’t actually remember what true butterscotch tastes like but this pudding has caramel-ish undertones from the dates and has a bit of buttery notes from the almond butter. Also, I used my Magic Bullet blender when I should have used my food processor or Vitamix to make the pudding ultra smooth – what can I say, I was lazy and didn’t want to wash more dishes that I had to 🙂
“Butterscotch” Pudding (adapted from BeStrixed)
Ingredients
2 cups of diced carrots
drizzle of maple syrup (to taste)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2-4 Medjool dates, pits removed and roughly chopped (soak for 2 hours beforehand if really dry)
2 Tbsp raw cashews (I recommend soaking them for a few hours to help process)
2-3 Tbsp roasted (or raw) almond butter (or pecan butter)
2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk (or more if needed)
pinch of salt
Directions
1. In a medium pot or steamer, steam carrots until cooked through (mine took about 5 minutes?) and drain.
2. While carrots are still hot, ladle carrots into a food processor or blender with the maple syrup and vanilla and blend for a minute. (Be sure to put the lid on, but leave off the cap to allow air to escape; hold a cloth over it to avoid sputtering and getting burnt.)
3. Add dates, and blend again, adding milk.
4. Add in almond butter, cashews and a pinch of salt and blend until smooth and creamy. If too thick, add a drizzle more of milk to your desired consistency (it will stiffen up after chilling).
This pudding is ready to eat, warm, if you like; but it’s better after it sits a while and flavors marry. It tastes better the next day, and will also set up to a more pudding density after being chilled.
Serves 2
Natural Noshing 
Funny! I was sitting here eating more of the raspberry avocado pudding and trying to get some good pictures and then saw this.
And yay! You made butterscotch pudding! I’m kind of scared of this recipe because I don’t like carrots or cashews and I’ve never had dates (although I have a bag sitting in the kitchen waiting to be used!) but I’m obviously going to make this. Thank you so much for making this recipe! I know you already have lots of other desserts waiting to be posted. I’m sure I’ll love it despite the vegetable content. You’re awesome. 🙂
This version is not as creamy as the avocado version but I should have used a food processor and maybe it would be! I made this the night after you said you wanted butterscotch and then I was reading a day later that you aren’t a fan of veggies 😦 whoops! I bet you could use blanched almonds instead of cashews if you aren’t a fan. Do you like apricots at all? If so, you would sub some of the carrots for the apricots and you might like it better?
PS your raspberry pudding sounds and looks incredible! Fabulous job Erin! 🙂
Haha. Sorry about my pickiness. But it’s not a problem! I still don’t like avocados and I love the pudding! I bought the cashews yesterday but then I saw that they’re roasted and salted. Whoops. And about the dates… I can’t find Medjool dates here and I looked into it and it seems like you shouldn’t use normal dates when a recipe calls for Medjool.
I don’t really like apricots either so I’ll just stick with the cashews. I want to make it as written! As long as it doesn’t taste like vegetables. It doesn’t taste like vegetables, right? 🙂
And thanks! I’m happy you like the pudding post. I’m also going to post the original one day. Probably not any time soon, but it will be posted at some point.
I have an idea! I’ll look at Turkish and Asian food shops for the dates. There’s hope!
Pudding that tastes like butterscotch and has carrots? Score!
I love it when desserts contain veggies (you know, as long as the taste of it isn’t there!).
I love using veggies in desserts and baked goods too! The dates and sweetener and nut butter help mask the flavor of the carrots while the carrots have a nice sweet taste to them naturally 🙂