Alyson Mayo’s chocolate pudding comes frozen. You can let it thaw to pudding consistency, but chances are you won’t want to wait.
Mayo’s “Gert & Lil’s” puddings – she also makes one that’s chai flavored – are vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free. The chocolate version is, well, chocolatey and rich. It’s made with a coconut milk base, but you would never know it because you can’t taste the coconut. Eat it frozen on a hot day, and it feels like a decadent treat from the local ice cream truck.
Mayo created the new product because she missed eating pudding. She has her own dietary restrictions, including being gluten- and dairy-free. When she was growing up, Mayo’s father would re-invent recipes to meet her restrictions, and she remembers how good it made her feel that someone would do that for her.
When she became an adult, she started experimenting in the kitchen herself. “When I came up with something good,” she said, “I wanted to share that with other people so they felt like ‘Oh wow, somebody made something that I can actually eat.’ ”
But Mayo doesn’t think of her puddings as a product just for people who can’t eat dairy.
“Everybody will like it,” she said, “but it’s a special treat for people who are restricted.”
Mayo has one other product on the market, “Evelyn’s Almond Vanilla Cookies,” and she’s still developing others, such as an almond milk version of the pudding. Both the cookies and the almond milk pudding were made for a 2-year-old niece who has severe food allergies.
For now, Gert & Lil’s puddings, named for Mayo’s late grandmothers, are being sold only at A. Wilbur’s Farmstand at 44 Independence Drive in Freeport (just off Lower Main Street), but we decided to write about it anyway so we could tell you about this little wooden shack that’s filled with locally made artisanal foods.
The Farmstand sells the 4-ounce pudding cups for $3.75 each.
— MEREDITH GOAD
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