Easy Strawberry-Blackberry Pudding (Dairy Free)
This dairy free berry pudding recipe is perfect when you have extra Summer berries hand. It’s also gluten-free but double check to make sure your cornstarch is gluten free. 
Dairy-Free Berry Pudding Recipe
To be a host, party-giver, entertainer. For us one of the most important priorities is to make sure everyone feels included. Whether it is clients at the studio for a shoot, or if we are hosting one of our photography/styling workshops, or if it is just friends over at the house, that sense of inclusion amongst everyone defines the success as us as hosts.
More than once we’ve subjected friends to dorky games, coercing even the shyest ones into participation. There’s nothing like shared dorkdom to bring a group together. However as we’ve grown, our style has shifted away from shared torture and more towards pleasure, I sure to the relief of our dear friends who somehow still want to get together with us. Plus, professionally the dorky games might not have flown too well with clients.
Instead we focus on the food. The heartbeat of a gathering. Figuring out a menu that everyone can enjoy isn’t as simple as it used to be. We used to just have people mention they were vegetarian or occasionally a nut allergy or dairy restriction would come up. Today as people are becoming more aware of what their bodies are able to process and are more comfortable sharing that with others we get more and more scenarios to try to accommodate.
So when we find a dish which is delicious and also happens to be “safe” for a great range of guests, we get super excited. Particularly when it comes to desserts. Desserts are that special finish to a meal and to have someone feel left out or like an outcast because they can’t partake along with the rest of the group just sucks. So after we stumbled upon this pudding recipe from Bakeless Sweets by Faith Durand we immediately added it to our stock of go-to recipes.
Gluten Free Berry Pudding
The pudding is quick to make, gluten-free and dairy free. Triple win. And more importantly, it is very tasty. In her original recipe she used raspberries and strawberries, creating a stunning red pudding. At the time I had a bunch of strawberries which were on their last days and some blackberries in the freezer. I made a few tweaks to taste and the end result was excellent. Even with the sub-par strawberries. As we’ve re-made the recipe time and time again, using better fruit of the season the taste has just gotten better.
Since that first time I’ve just kept with the same strawberry-blackberry combo, just mixing it up between fresh or frozen fruit and adjusting the sugar as needed of the day’s fruit. I just liked the combo so much I haven’t changed. Someday I’ll have to make her strawberry-raspberry combo as I know it will be delicious, but the strawberry-blackberry has been our current go-to.
We’ve made this over and over for our workshop attendees and for clients and everyone loves it. And the look on the faces of those who usually have to miss out on desserts because they can’t have gluten or dairy and now get to be included along with everyone else is priceless. Hope you enjoy too.
-Todd
This recipe was first shared in 2014 and re-posted now with some updates. Thanks!
Strawberry-Blackberry Pudding Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (360ml) water
- 1/4 cup (32g) cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 egg yolks
- 12 ounces (340g) blackberries , fresh or frozen (thawed)
- 12 ounces (340g) strawberries , fresh or frozen (thawed)
- 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) fresh lemon juice (about 1 average lemon)
Instructions
- Whisk together the water, cornstarch, and salt until well combined. Whisk in the egg yolks. Set aside.
- Blend the blackberries, strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice into a puree. Pour the puree into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over high heat. Remove from the heat.
- Whisk about 1 cup (240ml) of the hot puree into the cornstarch mixture. Pour the tempered cornstarch/berry mixture into the saucepan with the remaining puree, whisking vigorously.
- Return the saucepan to the cooktop and heat over medium heat. Bring the pudding to a boil, whisking frequently. The pudding will thicken and the bubbles will rise large and slow, making a "gloop or plop" sound - as the author of Bakeless Sweets perfectly describes.
- Continue to simmer for 2 minutes, whisking frequently. Immediately strain the pudding through a wire mesh sieve. Pour the strained pudding into a shallow container and cover with a piece of plastic wrap or butter wax paper directly touching the top surface of the pudding. Chill for at least 2 hours and serve in dessert cups with a fresh whipped cream. Best eaten within 3 days.
Are egg yolks necessary?
Hi Melinda,
The egg yolks help set the firmness of the puddings. We’ve never tried it without, but it may set with just the cornstarch. You might need to add a little more to get the texture you want. When we get the chance we’ll test it that way, as it would make a nice vegan option.
Nice and Lovely recipe. I think i will make it easily. thanks for sharing this recipe
I will try to make this pudding with the mulberry I bought yesterday ^^ Thank you for sharing the recipe! All the ingredients are available in my house.
Do you think this recipe would still work, if I subbed out the corn starch for arrowroot powder?
It should. We haven’t tried it yet, but we don’t see any reason why arrowroot powder wouldn’t work just fine.
This looks great…we have a long blackberry hedge that is producing thousands of berries this summer, so I’m looking for new recipes to try! Question: Can I replace the sugar with Stevia in this recipe? Thanks so much!!
Hi Suzanne, we’ve never used stevia enough to give a reliable answer. Hopefully a reader will know and chime in. Thanks !
This pudding looks so delicious! The color from the blackberries is absolutely gorgeous.
Can’t wait to try this pudding with our bounty of summer berries! I love that I can use what ever type of berries we have on hand, whether frozen or fresh! This will be perfect for a 4th of July dessert!
Besides this wonderful recipe, I adore your both talents in food photography. I recently have attended your food photography seminar on Creative Life and I have learned soooo much. After that , even in my sleep I would see all the images you shot there , what a wonderful thing to see in my sleep I must say. I thank you both for your endless dedication and passion to bring on such a creative full seminar. Next time I dream of you again, I’ll let you know.
Let me give both of you hug hugs, you have changed my photography approach to food photography. Have a great summer filled with joy and sweet berries.
Cornelia
I follow a Low FODMAP diet which is all around managing IBS symptoms through the understanding of fermentable sugars. Since I started this a year ago I have a whole new sensitivity to people and their intolerances towards food. This is almost perfect for me (except I can’t eat blackberries as part of the low FODMAP diet) since there seems to be an excellent foundation in which a person can modify the fruits according to preference. That’s a perfect recipe and a total “go-to” as you suggested. I can see this becoming an easy thing to make to please everyone—my mum has a bovine and dairy allergy and my aunt has to watch sodium due to kidney disease.
That’s the long way of saying “YA!! Thanks!”
I adore blackberries, and can’t wait to try them in this pudding!
I am SOOOO gonna make this for a birthday party next month. These photos are so beautiful, well what am I saying, of course, they have to be 🙂
This looks so delicious, colourful, refreshing and it’s ‘safe for all.’
Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
I’m normally not that into pudding but you’ve totally tempted me with this recipe!