Homemade Vanilla Pudding (no eggs)

It's sad when you have to find recipes that don't use eggs.  Do you realize how many eggs this family goes through in any given week? I was buying cases at Sam's (15 dozen) every 2 weeks before.  It's unreal how many eggs we can use here between eating and baking.  There's a reason I have chickens. 

Obviously that reason has nothing to do with egg production as the ladies rarely cooperate fully with that.

So, persnickety hens yet again, we bought eggs.  Yes, I know there's a recall.  There's always a recall on food within the system these days.  I take them seriously, I do, but I couldn't find any one with eggs to sell between Corinth and Tupelo and you know, when you don't have something, you just get wrapped up in that feeling of denial and starvation.

I scanned egg cartons and found Julian dates well away from the recall dates and plant numbers that didn't come close to matching.  I did what I could, short of going without, to make an informed and safe selection.  And no one gets eggs for breakfast until I find some good fresh yard eggs.  Only well-baked eggs around here for a while.

Either way, I digress. As usual. So, back on track here...I needed a dessert that not only used up milk, but didn't need eggs.  First in line, Pudding.  Everyone loves pudding.  It's versatile...eat as itself, make into a pie, make graham cracker desserts....the list is deliciously endless.

So, Eggless Vanilla Pudding:
2 c milk
1/2 c sugar
3 Tbs cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs butter

Heat milk just to scalding.  Sift together salt, cornstarch and sugar and add to hot milk, stirring to dissolve.  Keep stirring to prevent scorching, and cook to thicken *do not boil*  Once thickened, remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. If cooling before serving, lay plastic wrap directly on surface and cool in fridge.

What we did:
Obviously, with 9 for dessert, I needed to double this.  Well, needing to use up milk a little quicker than that, I doubled my double amounts :o)  Like 8 cups of milk and 2 cups sugar, etc.  We had a good portion for dessert last night, and will have enough for tonight as well.  I'll toss in some chocolate chips for tonight's treat just for fun.

With alittle tweaking, goosing the cornstarch up to 5-6 Tbs, I think you'd have a great thickness for a pie.  Googling recipes, I found several variations that switched up the vanilla and added almond extract, peppermint extract, etc. so there's room for play there as well.  Also, some comments on a few recipes also  noted using Splenda instead of sugar -- though apparently it scorches more easily so you really need to watch that.  Some even talked about using honey for the sweetner.  Me, I used raw sugar because I have it.  Raw is better than processed white, so I'm happy ;o)

This will be a standard pudding recipe here from now on.  I haven't played around with how much cocoa to add for a chocolate pudding yet....any thoughts?