Molly Makes Dark Chocolate Chia Parfait

This is our 100th episode?

[Man] Yes.

Are you just saying that?

[Man] No, you're the hundredth episode.

Oh my god, celebration station.

Am I truly 100?

You guys.

You guys were [bleep] trolling me.

It could've been our hundredth episode,

that would need to be fact-checked.

Oh my god.

[Woman] This is our hundredth episode.

That's what, yeah, that's what--

You guys, is this your--

[Woman] Doing this.

[Man] We were lying before, but this is actually our

hundredth episode. This is definitely--

You guys-- Take three.

Are all ganging up on me.

Well, we've never lied about anything else.

I'm kind of flabbergasted right now.

I really thought that was 100.

So what is this?

Do you guys even count?

Do you even know what number it is?

[Man] No, this is 100, because 150.

The one we did with Andy was 99 and this is 100 now.

I don't believe you for a second.

[upbeat music]

Every year when we do Feel Good Food Plan,

we're tasked with coming up with

a healthy-leaning dessert that doesn't feel so healthy

that you're just not gonna make it.

So last year I did a chocolate mousse,

a vegan coconut chocolate mousse.

And this year I wanted to do a pudding,

so to lean in the healthy realm,

I decided to do a chia pudding.

So it's a little bit more indulgent

than your typical breakfast chia pudding.

There's cashews and quite a bit of date in it,

so it's pretty sweet and it's pretty thick,

but it's the type of thing that after a few spoonfuls of,

you feel satiated and that was the goal with this recipe.

So it can be either built into a parfait,

where we'll make a chia pudding with chocolate,

and then we'll make a maple yogurt

and it can be built parfait-style,

or you can keep the two elements separate

and eat them however you would like,

either for breakfast or for dessert or for a snack.

So they're built to kind of stay in your fridge

and stay with you all week.

So, the pudding.

This particular chia pudding was inspired

by my love of the date shake, which if you don't know,

is a vanilla ice cream and date milkshake

that is from Palm Springs, California.

As much as I would love to drink a date shake

every night of my life, that's just not realistic,

and so it takes those same flavors

but uses different ingredients that are more healthful

and not as fattening, and just a little leaner, if you will.

Let's do it.

I guess I can just do it as I'm talking about it,

instead of telling you about it.

Okay, so I have, this is about

seven ounces of pitted Medjool dates.

They're all different sizes,

so make sure to weigh them because it can really affect

the sweetness of this dessert.

And I'm gonna add 2/3 a cup of raw cashews.

None of this is soaked overnight,

but this is gonna sit overnight,

so the cashew and the date and all of these ingredients

will go into the blender raw and then we'll pour

the chia seeds in and they'll plump overnight.

Couple tablespoons of cocoa powder.

A teaspoon of cinnamon, vani-cinnamon.

[Man] Vince-innamon.

A little bit of vanilla extract.

Some salt, and three cups of unsweetened,

unflavored cashew milk.

You could also use almond milk.

I chose cashew just 'cause it pairs well

with the cashews that are kind of the meat of this pudding,

but if you have almond milk, unsweetened almond milk,

hanging around, go for it.

So the whole date shake element of this

is that the cashews kind of perform

the way that ice cream would

when they're blended with cashew milk.

They get really thick and creamy, and they're pretty fatty.

And then the vanilla extract obviously

is the vanilla flavoring and the dates are the dates,

so you can see how that recipe came to be.

So I'm gonna blend this on high.

[blender whirs loudly]

We'll just do a quick taste to make sure

that it tastes delicious.

So it's pretty thick.

It's sort of the consistency of

like, hot cocoa, but it's not hot.

It's like a thick, viscous, chocolatey,

it's like a chocolate protein shake, really.

You can see.

Oftentimes you'll see a ratio for chia seeds to liquid

that's one part chia and four parts liquid,

and that'll produce a pudding

that is just barely bound together,

but is mostly about the chia as it plumps overnight.

I wanted this to feel less like chia pudding

and more like regular chocolate pudding,

and so I basically doubled the ratio of liquid to chia

so that there's something more binding it all together

and it feels a little bit thicker and more indulgent.

So that's why there's quite a bit of this liquid.

Going into a jar, this is just for storing purposes.

Whoops.

And then I'm gonna sprinkle in these chia seeds.

These are white, you could use black.

They're the same thing, just different color.

And just give it a quick stir,

and then I'll put the cap on and give it another shake.

[spoon clacks]

Chia seeds need about minimum four hours to plump,

so I just let it go overnight.

It's like a great thing to set up the night before.

Stir it in, we'll put the cap on, little mixy-mix.

And then we'll wait several hours.

Just take a little sneaky-peaky in here.

Kevin?

You can see this has gotten quite thick.

The chia has plumped and it's basically pudding now.

Okay, so that's what we're talking about

when we say plumped chia.

You no longer can see the individual little seeds.

They've absorbed liquid, they're much more palatable,

and it's pudding-like.

Pudding done, now as an option,

we can make this sweetened maple yogurt.

So this is whole milk yogurt, two cups.

You could also use coconut yogurt or cashew yogurt.

I prefer the mouthfeel of whole milk yogurt,

but if you're lactose intolerant or dairy-free,

there's plenty of other options

on the market that are delicious.

I'm just gonna stir in a 1/4 cup of maple syrup

until it is combined.

So now I'm gonna make an example parfait.

The best way to handle this is to store

these two separately in your fridge

and then kind of build each time you wanna make a dessert.

Couple of spoonfuls of the chocolate chia pudding

at the bottom, maybe a little more.

And then alternating with yog.

A little pud, a little yog,

a little more pud, a little more yog.

One more.

All right.

And then final drizzle of a little bit more maple.

A sprinkle of Maldon salt because

I'm never, never not doing that.

And a dusting of cinnamon.

And voila, the chocolate date chia pudding parfait.

It's extremely healthy and delicious.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Should we eat it?

I like how the layers, remember those when you were a kid,

the little Snack Pack puddings,

and you could get vanilla or chocolate

or you could get swirl?

And the swirl one kind of did this like, this vibe.

So it's taking me back there,

but it's like 2.0, date shake version of it.

Anyway, let's dig in.

A little bit of everything in each bite,

that's why we layer.

Mm, delicious.

In my opinion, this is just as satisfying

and luxurious and indulgent, maybe not just as,

but almost as satisfying and indulgent

as a traditional pudding and there's no double boiling

and eggs and cooking and chilling.

All you have to do is throw everything in a blender,

set it overnight, you come back the next day,

and you have pudding.

So I can't really see a reason why

you shouldn't be making this,

especially given that if you're not eating it

for dessert you can eat it for breakfast.

So you get to eat dessert for breakfast.

So it's sweet and it's rich and it's thick,

but that's what makes it pretty satisfying

and the type of thing that you can have

a couple of spoonfuls of after dessert,

and you feel like you satisfied your sweet tooth.

[Man] [laughs] After dinner.

What'd I say?

[Man] You said after dessert.

Oh, yeah, you eat this after dessert.

You have your real dessert,

and then you have your Healthyish dessert.

You have the dessert

you don't-- Second dessert.