Kyl Haselbauer has 20 years of experience working in fine-dining and modernist kitchens, including Bar Cotto and Anchovies &amp; Olives in Seattle. He is also the owner of Bright Spot, a café and coffee shop in Seattle.

Kyl Haselbauer

Okay, I did <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/vanilla-pudding">vegan vanilla</a> pudding. I did <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/butterscotch-pudding">vegan butterscotch pudding</a> and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/coffee-pudding">vegan coffee pudding</a>. I even did something specifically for the holidays: the <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/eggnog-pudding">“egg”nog pudding</a>. And then I made a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/roasted-banana-pudding">vegan banana pudding</a>, because so many readers asked (so nicely) for it. But I still had one more pudding in me, and here it is. Behold: vegan chocolate-peanut butter pudding!I like to think of this as a peanut butter cup-inspired pudding, since we always have the ones from Justin’s lying around in the ChefSteps kitchen. This recipe is just like my other vegan puddings, which are made with blended cashews, water, fat, and low-acyl gellan gum. The gellan is a powerful hydrocolloid that, when mixed with water, fat, and starch, can produce a creamy and rich fluid gel that’s indistinguishable from puddings and custards made with dairy and eggs.For this flavor variation, I just had to alter the ratio of ingredients to account for the way dark chocolate and peanut butter would affect the texture of the gel. Chocolate and peanut butter both contain a fair amount of fat, so I reduced the amount of cashews and got rid of the coconut oil used in the other recipes. You get the same beautiful texture, but the pudding is packed with dark chocolate and peanut butter.As with the other pudding recipes I’ve developed that use gellan, you’ll need a precise digital scale—accurate to 1/10th of a gram—to make this recipe successfully. Portion the pudding into cups and you’ve got the best after-school snack you never got the chance to have, and adding some salted, roasted peanuts on top is a low-effort way to really take this pudding to another level.

Vegan Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pudding