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Overnight Cinnamon Flax Pudding with Almond Butter and Toasted Pecans

Ground flaxseed stirred into Greek yogurt and milk with a lot of cinnamon, left overnight until it sets, then swirled with almond butter and topped with toasted pecans.

By Camille McLaughlin, RDN, LD, registered dietitian nutritionist

Built forAnti-InflammatoryBreakfast
Also fits High-Fiber High-Protein Low-Added-Sugar
Flaxseed swells overnight into something dense and pudding-thick, tan and freckled dark, with cinnamon running all the way through it. A spoonful of almond butter dragged across the top in the morning leaves a ribbon that stays where you put it, and pecans toasted until they smell like butter go over in halves rather than pieces.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe

I built this for the mornings when I want a spoon and a pot and nothing else, and I keep making it because it is the rare made-ahead breakfast that gets better rather than sadder by day three. Ground flaxseed is doing the structural work. Stirred into yogurt and milk it swells and sets on its own overnight, no cooking, no gelatin, nothing to watch. What you lift out of the refrigerator is genuinely thick, closer to a set pudding than a stirred yogurt, and the cinnamon has had all night to work its way through rather than sitting on top.

The two finishing moves are what make it worth eating rather than merely convenient. Almond butter needs to be room temperature and well stirred so it drags in a clean ribbon rather than seizing into a lump against the cold pudding, and pecans want a real toast, five or six minutes until the kitchen smells like butter and the halves have darkened a shade. Left as halves rather than chopped, they sit proud on the surface and snap when the spoon goes through. The pinch of salt in the base is small and it is not optional, because it is what keeps the cinnamon from tasting dusty.

This eats heavy in the good sense. There is a lot of yogurt in each pot and a great deal of flaxseed, so a small glass holds more than it looks like it should, and the almond butter and pecans give it a richness that a plain yogurt pot never has. I make four on a Sunday, top them one at a time through the week, and eat them cold straight from the jar. Cinnamon, toasted nuts, and something thick and cold is a combination that works at any hour and asks nothing of you at seven in the morning.

Thick tan pudding flecked with dark brown flaxseed, a ribbon of almond butter dragged across the top of each in a spiral, halved pecans toasted deep and piled in the center. Save
Prep: 12 minsCook: 6 minsTotal: 18 minsMakes: 4 servingsServing: 1 pot

Ingredients

Serves4Amounts change with the number. The nutrition panel is per serving, so it stays the same.
  • 1 cup plus 2 tbsp ground flaxseed (about 4 oz)
  • 3 1/4 cups plain nonfat Greek yogurt (about 27 oz)
  • 3/4 cup 2% milk
  • 1/2 cup pecan halves
  • 2 1/2 tbsp almond butter, well stirred
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp fine sea salt

Instructions

  1. Toast the pecans: Spread the pecan halves in a dry skillet over medium heat and shake the pan every twenty to thirty seconds. In five to six minutes they will darken a shade, the kitchen will smell like butter, and a broken half will look golden inside. Tip them onto a plate immediately, since pecans have enough fat to keep cooking and go bitter in a hot pan.
  2. Mix the base: In a large bowl, whisk the Greek yogurt, milk, cinnamon, and salt together until the cinnamon is fully worked in and there are no dry brown specks floating on the surface. Do this before the flaxseed goes in, because cinnamon clumps against flax and stays clumped.
  3. Stir in the flaxseed: Add the ground flaxseed all at once and stir hard with a spatula for a full minute, scraping the bottom and sides. It will look thin and grainy and you may think you have added too much liquid. That is exactly right at this stage. Stop when the color is even and no dry flax is visible.
  4. Divide and set overnight: Spoon into four small jars or glasses, tap each one on the counter to settle it, cover, and refrigerate at least six hours and preferably overnight. It thickens dramatically in the first two hours and keeps tightening after that.
  5. Finish in the morning: Warm the almond butter between your hands or stir it until it is loose, then drag a spoonful across the top of each pot in a spiral. Pile the toasted pecans in the center and dust with a little more cinnamon if you like. Eat it cold, straight from the jar.
Nutrition Facts
4 servings per recipe
Serving size1 pot
Calories436
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 28g36%
Saturated Fat 3g15%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 13mg4%
Sodium 172mg7%
Total Carbohydrate 22g8%
Dietary Fiber 10g37%
Total Sugars 10g
Includes 0g Added Sugars 0%
Protein 29g
Vitamin D 0.6mcg3%
Calcium 391mg30%
Iron 2.5mg14%
Potassium 699mg15%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Values are computed from USDA FoodData Central and are estimates. Per serving (1 pot).

Variations

  • Cocoa and pecan: Grate dark chocolate over the almond butter ribbon so it softens slightly against the cold pudding.
  • Raspberry ripple: Crush half a cup of raspberries and swirl them through the base just before it goes into the jars.
  • Tahini and sesame: Use tahini in place of the almond butter and scatter toasted sesame seeds over the pecans for something darker and more savory.
  • Ginger and cinnamon: Add half a teaspoon of grated fresh ginger to the base for a warmer, sharper pudding.
  • Walnut: Toast walnut halves in place of the pecans for a more bitter, tannic crunch against the cinnamon.

Storage & Leftovers

The pots keep four days covered in the refrigerator and thicken a little more each day. If day three feels too dense for you, stir a tablespoon of milk through before you top it and it goes back to where it was on the first morning. Keep the pecans out until serving so they stay crisp.

Make the base in one large container rather than four jars if you would rather portion as you go. It holds the same four days, scoops cleanly, and lets you decide each morning whether you want a small pot or a large bowl of it.

Flax pudding freezes for two months in sealed portions and thaws overnight in the refrigerator, though it comes back slightly looser than it went in. Whisk it for twenty seconds after thawing and it pulls back together. Do not freeze it with the nuts or the almond butter on top.

Notes & Tips

A few notes from my kitchen, most of them about flaxseed, which is more particular than it looks.
  • Keep flaxseed in the freezer: The oil in ground flax goes stale fast at room temperature, and stale flax will not gel.
  • Whisk the cinnamon in first: Cinnamon added after the flax forms lumps that never break up, and you will find them dry in the middle the next morning.
  • Trust the thin stage: The base looks far too loose when you spoon it into the jars. Do not add more flax at that point or you will get paste by morning.
  • Loosen the almond butter first: Cold almond butter seizes against cold pudding and tears the surface. Stir it or warm the jar in your hands until it ribbons.
  • Toast the pecans as halves: Chopped pecans burn in the time it takes halves to toast, and the halves look and eat better on top.
  • Do not skip the salt: An eighth of a teaspoon across four pots is what stops the cinnamon from tasting dusty and flat.

Nutrition & Mindful Eating

A thick, cold, cinnamon-heavy pudding that sets itself overnight on ground flaxseed and Greek yogurt, finished with almond butter and toasted pecans.
  • Flaxseed, Greek yogurt, and almond butter are what give this pot its body. The flax sets the whole thing overnight and brings the fiber, the yogurt brings the protein and the tang, and the almond butter adds the richness that keeps a cold spoonful from feeling thin.
  • Ground flaxseed swells into a gel the moment it meets liquid, which is the only reason this pudding sets without heat. That same soluble fiber is what makes it filling, and the seed carries alpha-linolenic acid, the plant form of omega-3 fat, which is available only once the seed is ground.
  • Greek yogurt strained thick is doing most of the protein work here, and it brings calcium and live cultures along with its sourness. Its tang is also what keeps a cinnamon-heavy pudding from tasting flat.
  • Pecans toasted until they smell like butter are the softest and sweetest of the common nuts, high in fat and low in the bitterness walnuts carry, and they bring manganese and a little fiber to a bowl that is already soft everywhere else.
  • A teaspoon and a half of cinnamon across four pots is more than most recipes use, and it is there for the warmth it gives a cold breakfast. Cinnamon has been studied for its effect on how the body handles carbohydrate, and it also happens to taste like the thing that makes this pudding worth eating.
  • As you eat, notice how much heavier the spoon is than a yogurt pot has any right to be, taste the salt underneath the cinnamon, and give the last few spoonfuls the same attention you gave the first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use whole flaxseed?

No, and this is the one substitution that will not work. Whole flaxseed passes through intact, so it will neither thicken the pudding nor give you much of what the seed carries. Buy it ground, or grind it yourself in a spice grinder in ten-second bursts and use it within a week.

It did not thicken. What happened?

Usually the flaxseed was old. Ground flax loses its ability to gel once the oil in it has gone stale, and stale flax smells sharp and slightly fishy rather than nutty. Buy it in a small bag, keep it in the freezer, and smell it before you use it. Not giving it a full six hours is the other cause.

Can I make it with a plant milk and no yogurt?

You can, and it will set beautifully, but it becomes a different recipe. The Greek yogurt is where nearly all the protein and the tang come from, so a plant version will be softer in flavor and lighter in body. A thick unsweetened coconut or soy yogurt is the closest swap.

Is it supposed to taste this earthy?

Flaxseed has a real nutty, slightly grassy flavor and this recipe leans into it rather than hiding it. If you would rather push it toward dessert, a little more cinnamon, a grating of dark chocolate, or a few crushed raspberries stirred through the top will do it.