This chocolate torte is a layered dessert that can be adapted depending on what you're craving.
I usually like chocolate. My Mom always loved lemon. I also include instructions below for how to make a turtle torte!
I used to make it with, get this, boxed pudding full of artificial flavorings and preservatives, and also with Cool Whip that has corn syrup and more chemical preservatives and flavorings, yikes! My version it's just as easy, but with better-for-you ingredients…
Just making simple swaps at the store is so easy! Look at the differences:
- Ingredient list in Jello brand chocolate pudding:
“Sugar, modified cornstarch, cocoa processed with alkali, sodium phosphate, contains less than 2% of tetrasodium pyrophosphate, natural and artificial flavor, salt, artificial color, mono- and diglycerides, red 40, yellow 5, blue 1.”
(When you can't pronounce some of the ingredients, that's never a good sign.)
- Now look at the ingredients in the box of organic chocolate pudding:
“Organic cane sugar, organic cornstarch, organic cocoa, salt.”
That's more like it.
Dreamy-licious
This dessert consists of 4 layers: a crust, a cream cheese layer, a pudding layer and a whipped cream layer on top.
Take a look at the recipe and I’ll show you more ways I made it a little better, but still not ‘healthy' due to the sugar.
If you’re like me though, and you know you’re only going to make something like this now and then, my changes at least get rid of the high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, artificial colors, etc. And with the better ingredients I use, it adds a few healthier ingredients, like crispy nuts, and the healthy fats in the butter, cream cheese, and real cream if you use that.
Chocolate Torte (or Turtle Torte or Lemon Torte)
Ingredients
Crust layer:
- 3/4 cup melted butter
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 3/4 cup pecans chopped small (even better, use crispy nuts)
- 1 1/2 cup organic all-purpose flour–Einkorn flour is my favorite nowadays
Cream cheese layer
- 8 ounces organic cream cheese, softened
- 3/4 cup organic powdered sugar
- 3/4 tub Truwhip topping (the ingredients are so much better than Cool Whip!), or make homemade whipped cream.
Pudding layer
- 1 package organic pudding, like this one , I usually make homemade pudding though, it's easy and only takes a little bit more time. Here's my homemade chocolate pudding recipe.
Whipped cream layer
- 3/4 tub Truwhip topping (some gets mixed in with the cream cheese layer and some is for the top), or again: make homemade whipped cream if you wish, but note that I haven't tried that in this recipe to know if it'll hold up and not get runny.
Garnishes:
- Mini chocolate chips, chocolate shavings, or a little cocoa powder to sprinkle around. You could also sprinkle around a few more pecan pieces or a drizzle of chocolate syrup. Do whatever you'd like!
Instructions
Crust layer:
- Mix all crust ingredients together and spread into a 9×13 glass or stainless steel baking dish. I like to use glass so the layers can be seen from the outside, it looks fun! Bake at 375* for 15 minutes then let cool. Meanwhile, start working on the other layers…
Cream cheese layer:
- Mix everything together until smooth.
Pudding layer:
- Follow package directions, let cool.
Put it all together:
- Once everything is cool, start layering: crust, cream cheese layer, pudding layer, whipped cream on top, then any garnishes you'd like.
- See the variation options below!
Notes
- Lemon torte: Use lemon pudding and some lemon zest for the garnish on top.
- Vanilla torte: Use vanilla pudding, then shave some chocolate on the top.
- Turtle torte: On the cream cheese layer drizzle some caramel (this post has a simple caramel recipe or here's another caramel recipe), use chocolate pudding, then add more chopped pecans for the garnish.
- Caramel torte: Same as the Turtle Torte only use vanilla pudding and skip the pecans on top. Drizzle more caramel on top as a garnish.
- Chocolate/Peanut butter torte: Add a peanut butter layer on the cream cheese layer by mixing the following together: 1 cup PB, 1/4 cup melted butter, and 2/3 cup organic powdered sugar.
More you might like:
- Have you tried sourdough bread yet? It's the healthiest bread there is!
Photo credit, Creative Commons 2.0
Michelle says
This looks delicious! I am new to your site and have enjoyed rummaging through a bit….Have followed Weston Price principles for over a year but of course still learning and trying to add to my recipe pile!!
Sukhmandir Kaur says
Using yogurt in a recipe will give in a nice lemony tang
Kelly says
Oh, and I’m going to make that yummy recipe next week for sure.
Kelly says
Such great scoop, Nancy, I love it!
Feel free to write up as much as you’d like to about the EFLF book, that would be great! 🙂
NancyO says
Oops…I brown the chicken in half coconut oil, half butter. Sorry!
NancyO says
Kelly, I am talking about the canned coconut milk (Thai brand is what I can get here). Surprisingly, no, it doesn’t taste like coconut at all! It is a very mild, rather bland flavor that is slightly sweet, but not so at all when you dilute it. Not any sweeter than milk anyway. I think you’d like it. Sally F. uses it in many of the recipes in Eat Fat Lose Fat. I bought that book years ago when I started cooking/eating more traditional foods. I went to the bookstore to try to get Nourishing Traditions and they didn’t have it, so I figured this one by her would be the next best thing to read while I waited for the other one to come in. I should write a review for your “good books” post, because EFLF was wonderful and explained the good fat/bad fat issue more understandably than anything I have read by her or Mary E. or anyone else.
As I write this, I am drinking a mug of chicken (bone) broth with coconut milk in it…so good, and as much as I love coconut, it doesn’t taste like it at all. I also add it to my chicken and rice soup for a little more body (and lauric acid) in the broth. I make a wonderful chicken recipe where I brown sliced onions and garlic and chicken pieces (usually thighs and breasts, bone in, skin off) in coconut oil and then pour a can of UNdiluted coconut milk over it. I cover it loosely with a lid, and simmer it until the chicken is nearly done. Then I lay 2 long sprigs of fresh rosemary over the top of the meat and cover it. I let that simmer for another 10-20 minutes or so and oh, man, is it good (if I do say so myself)! It is a favorite with my children. I tried some of the Thai dishes that use coconut milk, and my Southern family just couldn’t wrap our taste buds around them. Traditional cooking adapts so well to the way we cook in the south, and I have really embraced it after trying for so many years to “lowfat” all the recipes of our heritage. What was I thinking?!
I have also made powdered Rapadura in the blender and food processor. It works great. I’ve never tried to make enough to make icing, but have used it in whipped cream and to sweeten cream cheese. It is wonderful for that…add some chopped dried apricots and some pecans…mmm!
Hey…I should also mention that coconut milk is another good way to get medium chain triglyceries in our diets, esp when we have reluctant children (teens esp) to please. It took one of my sons awhile to be able to like coconut oil. I could make a smoothie for him and add oil and he’d give me “the look,” but when I made it half and half with raw milk and coconut milk, he didn’t even know it!
Okay, you can tell it is a slow day at my house! Sorry!
Kelly says
Meg, good scoop, thanks!
Marsha, maybe you could use organic corn starch? I found some the other day.
Nancy, no coconut taste in coconut milk, really? I love the idea to use this to fill in when we run out of our raw milk!
Kelly
NancyO says
I know this is an older post, but I thought I’d mention that canned coconut milk diluted 1/2 with water makes wonderful cooked pudding. I try to save my raw milk for only raw consumption, and have found that coconut milk subs great in nearly everything. No coconut taste, and extra lauric acid to boot! I keep cans of it in my pantry and mix it up for this kind of thing. I have used it for banana pudding, chocolate pie, coconut pie, for the milk in biscuits and other baked goods, etc.
Marsha_M says
I’ll put my 2 cents with Meg and maybe we’ve got something! My mom made powdered sugar in our Vita-mixer one time when I was a kid. It was just sugar and cornstarch. I looked up the proportions online and it is 1 cup sugar to 2 T of cornstarch. Are there any good substitutes for cornstartch?
I’ve thought of making my own powered Rapadura also just for the recipe you posted! Also if you don’t have access to raw milk, coconut milk is a great substitute in a recipe like this.
Meg says
… I just came across this (I’m still trying to figure out a way to make pudding with goat milk that doesn’t taste, um, “goaty” 😉 SOMEDAY!!!), and thought I’d throw my 2
Kara Carper says
A substitue for any kind of sugar in whipping cream (whether it calls for powdered sugar or other sugar) is to use stevia. I make my whipping cream with stevia and vanilla extract and it’s wonderful! No sugar needed.
cheeseslave says
YUM that looks so delicious!
Great post, Kelly!
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
Fred, I’d like to check out the ingredient label on the all-natural jello – I didn’t see one at your site.
Thanks for the homemade recipes everyone – I can’t wait to try them, especially the baked pudding, so I don’t have to stand there stirring.
Liz, my mom made a lot of food from scratch, but pudding was never one of them!
Kelly
FreedomFirst says
I didn’t know anyone made organic pudding yet. I’ll keep my eye out for it. I quit making Jello and pudding altogether a while ago, because it just seemed like so many wasted calories.
Sue E. says
Kelly, Although the Dr. Oetker’s pudding is good and easy, I make my a homemade chocolate pudding (from the More With Less cookbook), just like “Anonymous”. Economical and just as easy when I don’t have packaged on hand:
1/3 c. sugar or honey
2 T. cornstarch
2 T. cocoa powder
2 c. milk
Cook above over med-high heat and stir constantly until thickened (this can take awhile).
Add:
1 tsp. vanilla
1 T. butter
Serves 4.
Also, just an addition to your “make your own whipped cream” tip: You can place stainless steel bowl and utensils in the freezer for and hour or so before whipping and that might save the ice step!
Have you posted how to make your own cream cheese??
sue
Anonymous says
Here is a recipe for chocolate pudding that I love and the link to the original blog where the recipe originated.
https://heavenlyhomemakers.com/blog/category/natural-sugar-treats/page/2
Chocolate Creamy Pudding
2 1/2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2/3 cup rapadura or 1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup cocoa powder
4 T. arrowroot powder
1/4 t. sea salt
3 T. butter
1 t. vanilla
In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, rapadura or maple syrup, cocoa, arrowroot powder and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring CONSTANTLY until pudding begins to thicken. Remove immediately from the heat, and continue to stir until pudding is creamy. Add butter and vanilla and continue to stir until mixed. Pour into serving dishes and serve warm, or chill for two hours and serve cold.
MidniteSiren says
The key to not curdling the milk is to mix the lemon juice in with other igredients before you add the milk
Carla 🙂
2 tb Butter (grass fed)
1 c Sugar (raw)
2 Eggs, separated (cage free)
2 tb Flour (I use Bob's red mill gluten free-all pourpose)
1 Lemon, juice & grated rind (organic)
1 c Milk (raw)
Beat butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until fluffy. Add egg yolks, lemon juice and rind and beat until well combined. Add flour and milk and beat again. In another bowl beat egg whites until stiff. Fold egg white gently into the milk mixture. Turn batter out into a buttered pudding dish or 9 x 9 pan. Set pudding dish in a shallow pan of water, making sure water is not deep enough to boil over into the pudding. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Serves 6-8.
Liz says
Hi Kelly… your post made me chuckle. Growing up my Mom never bought a box or package of anything. When we made a lemon meringue pie or chocolate pudding pie, we ALWAYS made it from scratch. (Same for vanilla and butterscotch too.) Lemon juice and grated lemon peel are what give the strong lemon flavor. Grace recently noticed the boxed pudding mixes at the store and asked about them. I told her I would show her how to make real pudding at home. I want her to know that food, even treats, come from real ingredients and not boxes and mixes. My yummy recipes are the same ones I've grown up with my entire life — from the Better Homes & Gardens red plaid cover cookbook. If you'd like me to post them I can, but they will take up a bit of space in the comments section.
Fred says
To replace artificial gelatin Jello, I suggest you use agar. This healthy, tasteless seaweed is a source of fiber and calcium (and remember that calcium is useless without proper amount of Vit D!).
Agar is also what is used the the first ever entirely natural, kosher, vegan jello dessert to be launched soon. Please feel free to visit jelaia.com.
Julie says
Thanks for this recipe. I have a friend who was famous for what she called “Chocolate Delight”, it was delicious, but something a person could only eat once in a while. Nice to have a healthier version of it. The lemon version sounds delightful, and I love lemon.
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
Shauna,
Ah yes, this is why it’s never good for me to think alone. 🙂 And by the way, I actually think what I have in the cupboard is an organic lemon extract, now that you mention it.
Michigan Mom2three says
Kelly – I’m thinking along with you, but I’d probably experiment first with the lemon oil. OR Country life has some wonderful lemon extracts available. Remember, you’re going to making the pudding up with milk, and the lemon juice straight will have a tendancy to sour your milk. (Remember – when you want to “make” buttermilk in a pinch – you add some lemon juice to milk and let it sit and “curdle”. I’m thinking it wouldn’t be a good idea in the pudding!)
Shauna