My husband, Chris, doesn’t have a real sweet tooth like I do. The man passes up cake at birthday parties and doesn’t even give brownies a second glance, I’ll never quite understand. But he DOES love banana cream pie, and not a real fancy, complicated pie. Chris is happy with pre-made graham crust, instant pie filling and a big-ol’ tub of cool-whip. So I decided to attempt my first ever allergen free banana cream pie. I was really surprised to see that the graham crust and jello instant pudding mix were JT safe, and I had just recently learned this amazing trick, magically turning coconut milk into “whipped cream”. So, I thought I would just use a pre-made crust, make some instant pie filling with rice milk and experiment with the coconut milk whipped cream…simple right? It’s not like me to just wing-it without researching first, but I did, and…I failed. Apparently you can’t make instant pudding with milk alternatives, unless you drastically change the amount of liquid you use. And apparently when you attempt to make pudding with rice milk and pour it into a pie crust and let it sit overnight in the fridge with hopes that it will firm up (which it won’t) the crust gets way too wet and big chunks start to fall into the “pudding” filling. And then your kids sit at the table, looking at you with big,sad eyes, wondering where their pie has gone. Oh well, fruit snacks it is!
At least I’ve learned a few things….
* I’m bad a winging it, research is good
* Instant jello doesn’t work with rice milk
* Coconut milk makes delicious whipped cream (At least that was a success!)
* My kids are just as happy to get fruit snacks as they would be to get pie
adaptingtoallergies 
Have you ever tried making it from scratch? What do you have to avoid in terms of allergens? Maybe I could try making my from scratch one next week and let you know if it works (without bananas – anaphylaxis) but subsituting coconut for me.
We are avoiding dairy, eggs, soy and all nuts (and other things that I imagine won’t end up in a pudding…beef, shell fish, melons, mangoes). If you do try it let me know how it turns out! I would love to try it again!
Once my sisters and I made some instant pudding with raw cows milk and it tastes like soap!! Some online research showed us that that is a common complaint when people try making pudding with raw milk. Who knew instant pudding was so picky. Sorry your lie failed, but at least the kids were happy! 🙂
I know! Now that I think about it, not working with rice milk sort of makes sense. But raw cows milk? That seems like it should work!
I have often wondered about those store bought puddings…my eldest is allergic to dairy and eggs (as well as many other food allergens). I now know not to try them! lol 🙂 Speedbump Kitchen has a good recipe for a dairy free chocolate pudding pie…easy and tasty. I just made it as a pudding for dessert to the boys delight! 🙂