This creamy orange spiked wheatberry pudding is an intensely vanilla and orange flavored pudding made with chewy wheatberries and spiked with rum.
Creamy wheatberry pudding. Creamy vanilla orange rum wheatberry pudding. Spiked vanilla & orange wheatberry pudding. Creamy orange rum wheatberry pudding. Guys, I just spent 15 minutes trying to decide what the heck to call this thing.
Let me summarize: Uh-mazing. Epic. Creamy. Vanilla-y. Zesty. Dessert. Breakfast.
Take your pick.
The flavor is so intensely vanilla you’d never know this lone bean has been shoved in three different pantries for the last 3 years because I refused to throw out the $7.32. I bought it from Whole Foods when we lived in Florida. The sell by date said 2007. Somebody call Hoarders, I bet that right there would qualify me.
How I didn’t slice a finger off scraping out that vanilla bean goodness from the dry as a bone bean is a complete miracle but totally worth the risk. I didn’t have to use any sugar, just a drop of maple syrup (which in retrospect you could totally omit) because the vanilla flavor from the bean was so sweet. Such a good use of 3 years of patience and $7.32.
Why wheatberries? Well why the heck not?
If you’ve never tried them, get yourself to a bulk bin ASAP. If you’re dying to make this and have none on hand, I’ll allow for a one time brown rice substitution, but only once! Promise?
I’ve decided wheatberries are my favorite grain. It was a toss up between millet and them for awhile but this sealed the deal. Their chew is just fun and they’re so versatile. I cooked up a big batch of them when I made this and ate them in cereal, yogurt, mixed in with oatmeal, used them in a salad…the possibilities are endless. Can’t really say the same thing about rice, can you?
Oh, and then there’s the orange and rum I mentioned in the title I finally decided on. Those are like the best supporting actors ever.
Zesty, fun and boozy. Kinda like Haymitch.
And everybody loves a fun drunk, don’t they?
Creamy Orange Wheatberry Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked wheatberries
- 2 cups milk, I used half 1% and half coconut milk from a carton
- 1/2 an orange, zested
- 1 vanilla bean, insides scraped out
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon orange extract
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon dark rum
Instructions
- Combine wheatberries, milk, vanilla bean, cinnamon, extract and salt in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and let cook, stirring often for about 20 minutes until wheatberries absorb most of the milk and it starts to thicken.
- Add maple syrup and rum and simmer for another 10 minutes. Pudding should be creamy and thick by this point with little milk left.
- Garnish with additional orange zest.
- Best served warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
I love wheatberries, especially PUFFED. MMM, now I have to go eat some.
Mmmm, I LOVE wheatberries– best chew out there!! This looks great for breakfast (or anytime).
Haymitch pudding (with protein and fiber)? Love! :)
depends if that fun drunk ends up being the person I have to carry home from the bars at 2am ;) which I’m totally used to at this point.
I’ve never had wheatberries but always imagine they have an incredibly chew factor kind of like short grain brown rice, mmm!
true. Very true. That can either be really funny or REALLY annoying. ;)
YUM. These flavor combinations sound so freaking good. And I don’t blame you for toting around that vanilla bean – I did the same thing with a tiny jar of saffron. That stuff’s expensive!
Glad you held out and saved your precious vanilla bean for a special ocassion. I will give you a shout when I decide to use my tofu that expired in 2009 that is hiding in the pantry.
omg, that’s bad! haha I’m not sure I would want to even see what 3 year old expired tofu looks like!
This looks like breakfast to me!! I’ve never tried wheatberries but after your recommendation, I definitely will! Always looking for different grains to try and the recipe looks great. P.S. I’dda done the same with the vanilla bean ;) Looks like you got your $7.32 out of it!
Mmmm! I totally need to try this.
you had me at spiked and I knew this was gonna be something gooood. I have never heard of or had wheatberries — look at you, always introducing me to new thannngs, me likey! This pudding looks great and hearty for breakfast….with or without the rum — hey, everyone needs a kickstart for the day, right?
Oh yum! I like wheatberries, there so chewy!! Your pudding looks yummy! Have a great day!!