Snack Attack: What’s in Your Pudding?
/By: Laura Dority MS RD LD and Daisy Argudin (mother extraordinaire)
Have you been looking for the perfect keto pudding or gelatin dessert? Well you are in luck because this month the Keto Hope team tested out the Simply Delish brand of pudding and Jel desserts and they did not disappoint. Let’s dig in……
The company mission is “to create delicious, healthy, desserts that can be enjoyed every day, everywhere by everyone.” That is a mission statement I can get behind!
The Simply Delish products are:
Vegan
Sugar free
Gluten free
Plant based
Nut free
Gelatin free (making it plant based)
Non-GMO
Sweetened with Stevia & Erythritol
Ethically sourced ingredients
Allergen free: Do not contain the 8 most common allergens including peanut, tree nuts, sesame, wheat, dairy, egg, soy and fish
We went on-line and “Built a Box” which was great because it allowed us to mix and match the puddings and jel options to get a variety of flavors. A pack of 14 boxes (each individual box having 4 servings) was ~$42.00 (so ~ 3 bucks per box). Shipping was free for orders over $30. The products are also available on Amazon.
Jel Desserts:
Flavors: Strawberry, Peach, Black Cherry, Orange, Raspberry, Lime, Unflavored
Nutrition: 1/4th package (4 servings per container): 5 calories, 0 grams fat, 4 grams total carbohydrates, 4 grams sugar alcohols, 0 grams protein, 0 grams net carbs
Ingredients: Erythritol, carrageenan, citric acid, potassium citrate, natural flavor (beet, beta carotene), natural flavor, stevia extract
Sweetened with erythritol and stevia
Sugar Free Jello-O® at the same portion size has 10 calories, 0 grams of total carbs, 0 grams fat and 1 gram of protein which at initial glance does not seem to bad but where the big difference lies is in the ingredients. Sugar Free Jell-O® ingredients include gelatin, adipic acid, disodium phosphate, maltodextrin, fumaric acid, aspartame, artificial flavor, acesulfame potassium, salt, and red dye 40. Maltodextrin, aspartame and acesulfame potassium specifically are ingredients I try to steer away from, and some epilepsy patients may be particularly sensitive to artificial flavors and dyes as well.
The company has a large recipe collection on their website including a Keto Strawberry Jel Cups that uses sour cream as a great high fat ingredient & Low Carb Broken Glass Jel Dessert with heavy cream. They also sell brick and honeycomb molds on their website so you could make little gel/gummy candies. You can also buy different mold shapes on Amazon- such as these little dinosaurs I got for my boys.
Our super taste tester Jonah liked the taste of the jel but felt the texture was more like jelly versus an actual gelatin dessert. He actually mixed it with a small amount of sun butter and loved it. A sugar-free jelly? Yep – we will take it! We found that if you use a little less water then you get more of the usual gelatin texture.
Instant Pudding –
Flavors: Chocolate, Banana, Strawberry, Vanilla
Nutrition: 1/4th package (4 servings per container): 30 calories, 0 grams fat, 9 grams total carbs, <1 gram fiber, 4 grams sugar alcohol, <1 gram protein (~4.5 grams net carbs)
Ingredients: Starch (potato), erythritol, cocoa, emulsifiers, stevia extract, salt, natural flavor (vanilla)
Okay so you are probably thinking at this point- hmmmmm these really aren’t so keto friendly with 9 grams of total carbs (subtract the fiber and erythrol to get to 4.5 grams net carbs). But wait…it’s all about what liquid you add. Remember the nutrition label is just for the powder – it doesn’t count the final -put in your mouth- product.
The company has a great video on how to make the pudding. They suggest adding 2 cups milk or 1 ¼ cup milk substitute such as a nut- based milk which would be keto friendly if you went with unsweetened almond or coconut milk. Keep in mind the nut-based milks do not add any fat or many calories. You would likely pair with some avocado, a fat bomb, or whip in some olive oil to add the necessary fat on a keto diet.
When we trialed the product, we followed the box instruction exactly and used 1 ¼ cup unsweetened almond milk and another box we mixed with 2 cups of heavy cream. The trial using almond milk truly came out just like a pudding texture but wasn’t quite as tasty as the one with heavy cream. Next time we may use the vanilla unsweetened almond milk option! After tasting all of them, the chocolate flavor was Jonah’s favorite.
The heavy cream product from a texture perspective was more like a whipped butter or buttercream frosting….delicious! It would be great for decorating keto cupcakes or a keto birthday cake. Oh, and did I mention this all took less than 5 minutes and didn’t require refrigeration for the product to set.
So when analyzing our recipes for nutritional facts:
Recipe 1: 1 packet of Simply Delish Banana Pudding + 1 ¼ cup unsweetend original almond milk (makes ~ 4 - ~1/3 cup servings per box)
Calories: 34
Fat: ~1 gram
Total carbs: 9 grams
Net carbs: 4.5 grams
Protein: 0 grams
Keto Ratio: 0.2:1
Recipe 2: 1 packet of Simply Delish Banana Pudding + 2 cups of heavy cream (makes ~4 – ½ cups servings per box)
Calories: 436
Fat: 44 grams
Total carbs: 12 grams
Net carbs: 8 grams
Protein: 2.5 grams
Keto Ratio: ~ 4:1
Clearly these recieps are rather different from a nutritional perspective! The recipe using almond milk is more of a low calorie snack you would pair with another fat source while the heavy cream option provides a hefty calorie and fat boost! You could certainly meet in the middle though for the best of both worlds. You could use 1 cup of heavy cream and ½ cup of unsweetned almond milk. In fact… I think that’s a great idea. That recipe would give you 233 calories, 22 grams fat, 11 grams total carbs, 6 grams net carbs and 1 gram protein for a 3:1 keto ratio. Why don’t you give it a try and leave us a comment on how it turned out! Get Your Pudding On!!
We were not compensated for this review in anyway. Our opinions are our own.