Chocolate Pudding (YF)

The day I cracked open my handy Joy of Cooking in search of satisfaction for a late night chocolate pudding craving was the day I had an epiphany about pudding in general!

WHY do we make bland, often artificially flavored pudding from cardboard boxes when we can make the real thing from real ingredients and, in the end, wind up with a pudding cup brimming with something silky smooth, full of flavor and literally oozing over the tongue with every mouthful? I mean--it’s SO EASY!!

Honest. Homemade pudding is beyond simple. The steps involve a minor bit of kitchen science, but you’ll master it easily and feel like a genius when you are done. You DO have the ingredients in your kitchen-unless it’s been forever since you saddled up the llamas and sherpa’d out for supplies.

Basic pudding is all made the same. A milk product, a thickener, a sweetener and flavoring. I’m going with chocolate this time out, but you might prefer vanilla, butterscotch, whatever. Once you master the basics, you could create some wacky and incredible flavors of your own. I’ll come back to vanilla pudding in the future-I promise! Because homemade vanilla pudding is a heavenly creamy custard creation you WILL want to make again and again!

For now, however, let’s make it chocolate.

This recipe comes from the 1997 edition of The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer, etc. If you have this one, find it on page 1019. It may be in other additions as well (there’s a bunch!) but I can’t check them all-when would I cook?!

Some tips before you start measuring and stirring....

*It calls for ALL half and half, but really, you can mix it up. Use all 2%, or 50/50 or whatever you want. Just remember, all skim milk is NOT gonna be as rich as all half and half...and since I’ve never made the fat free version I can’t tell you exactly HOW less yummy it might be, but...it’s still chocolate, so I bet it’s not bad!

*If you use the full dose of darkest chocolates called for I guarantee it will be luscious and I also guarantee you won’t be able to sleep for a few hours, so be careful how much you imbibe prior to bedtime!

*Could you use milk chocolate? A mix of dark and milk? I can’t see why not. Give it a try and let me know how you liked it.

*That IS a lot of chocolate, you say? Yeah, I get that! Leave out the second addition of ‘semisweet or bittersweet’, I doubt you’ll really miss it. Still too much for you? You should be able to safely cut back a bit on the cocoa too without messing with the magic that IS chocolate pudding.

*I use Hershey Cocoa Powder (better than Nestle and cheaper than others) but I prefer Ghirardelli chocolate chips (I’ll never go back to Toll House-too sweet, not enough chocolate taste and terrible if you need to melt them for something!) The semisweet are great here, but if you are looking to crank up the experience, use the 60% cocoa (delicious anytime on their own, as well!) The addition of the 60% is guaranteed to help you stay up late if you need to finish a good book, or a term paper!

Okay, here’s the recipe. Enjoy... and let me know how it turned out! J

Chocolate Pudding 4 or 5 servings

Once you taste this rich, smooth, deeply chocolate pudding, you will never go back to a mix. (Didn’t I tell you that?!)

Have ready a 3 cup bowl or mold or four or five 5-6 ounce cups or ramekins. (aka pudding cups) If unmolding the pudding, oil the mold(s). (if you do this-you gotta tell me how that worked out for you!)

Mix together thoroughly in a heavy saucepan:

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup plus 1 Tb. unsweetened cocoa

1/8 tsp. salt

Gradually stir in, making a smooth, runny paste:

1/3 cup warm water

Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat, then remove from the heat. For an especially thick and chocolaty pudding (and a BIG chocolate high!), add and stir briskly until melted:

1 ounce semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (this is optional, and if you are like me you are clueless exactly how much 1 ounce of chocolate chips is...1/4 cup is more than generous.)

Stir in:

1 3/4 cups half and half

Place in a bowl (kitchen science alert!!this is how it gets thick!) :

3 Tb. cornstarch

Very gradually add, making a smooth paste:

1/4 cup half and half

Thoroughly stir the cornstarch paste into the chocolate mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Reduce the heat to low; stirring briskly, bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, then stir in:

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Pour the pudding into the bowl or cups. If you do not want a skin to form (although some of us like that...) immediately press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pudding. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. (OKAY...this is a good place to point out that NOW is the best time to eat this-while it’s warm. After all, didn’t you make it because you are craving chocolate?!Wrap some, but eat some now, you simply will NOT regret the decision...unless you need to go to sleep soon!)

Serve with :

Whipped Cream (OMG...this clearly was written by someone who didn’t care about cholesterol! But it does sound yummy...)

If you wish, sprinkle with:

1 ounce semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, grated. (my chocolate pudding never hangs around long enough to get sprinkled with anything! J )

(Yum.....need I say more?)