Easy Coconut Milk Chia Pudding

This fast and easy coconut milk chia pudding recipe is made with full fat canned coconut milk, chia seeds, a wee bit of maple syrup, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.

Garnish coconut milk chia pudding with your favorite ingredients like nuts, toasted shredded coconut, and fresh fruit.

The chia pudding recipe needs to set in the refrigerator a minimum of 30 minutes. This makes the pudding solid enough to put garnishes like fruit or nuts on top.

Chia pudding with coconut milk is dairy free, keto, low carb, whole30, gluten free, and paleo. Chia seeds are full of fiber, protein, and omega 3s-fatty acids. All of these things are healthy for you but I'm no expert so can't get into the deets 🙂

Delicious Variations For Coconut Milk Chia Pudding

This chia pudding recipe with canned coconut milk is simple and delicious and can be dressed up with different spices, sweeteners, and garnishes. 

Instead of cinnamon in chia pudding try pumpkin pie spice or chai flavors such as a combo of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, or nutmeg. 

Sweeten the coconut milk chia pudding with maple syrup, honey, stevia, fruit juice, or any kind of sugar. 

Garnish coconut milk chia seed pudding with toasted coconut shreds or flakes, nuts, or fresh fruit.

Take chia pudding to the next dessert level with the addition of a little lime or lemon zest and a wedge of dark chocolate.

Coconut Cream Vs. Coconut Milk Vs. Light Coconut Milk?

I prefer full fat canned coconut milk for chia pudding but coconut cream or light coconut milk will also work. Other chia pudding variations could include almond milk, oat milk, soy milk, or regular milk.

The amount of fat in the "milk" determines how thin or thick the pudding will be and how long it will take to set. Thicker and fattier milks are the fastest to become more like a thick pudding.

What's the difference in all these "milks"? Coconut cream is the thickest and has the highest fat percentage and will set into a thicker pudding faster. It contains at least 20% fat and is like the "heavy whipping cream" equivalent of coconut milk.

Coconut milk has the middle amount of fat, minimally 10%. It is made from juiced coconut flesh and coconut milk. Generally, it has a layer of coconut cream at the top of the can with the lighter milk at the bottom.

Light coconut milk has a minimum fat content of 5% and is runnier with less solids. It will just take longer to "set" and become solid enough to hold the garnishes.

Other milks such as any "real" dairy or vegan dairy are very thin and low in fat. They may need an additional teaspoon or two of chia seeds if you want to speed up the thickening process for the chia pudding.

To Blend Or Not To Blend Chia Pudding?

This coconut chia seed pudding recipe uses a blender to mix the solid cream with the rest of the canned coconut milk and other ingredeints.

Blend the coconut milk for ~ 5 seconds or pulse blend it until it is integrated into a smooth consistency. If you run the blender too long it will denature the coconut milk and make it too runny.

Don't want to use a blender?  Cool.  Whip the pudding by hand. Sometimes the fat separates into a blob in a can of coconut milk and it can be hard to hand whip to integrate it.

Please note: Do not put the whole chia seeds in the blender if you prefer a textured pudding. I prefer them whole and add them after blending.

Don't like the texture of whole chia seeds?  Cool - some people don't.  Stick them in the blender too and blend 'em up.

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