"Homemade Chocolate Pudding"

You'll never go back to box pudding when you see how easy... ...and taste how delicious this super chocolaty pudding is. The toughest thing is chopping the chocolate and I've got a quick tip for that.



Ingredients:

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 Tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon confectioners' sugar



Preparation:



1. Chop semisweet chocolate and set aside

2. Whisk granulated sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, and salt in a medium pan. Whisk in milk and yolks. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking until thickened and milk is scalded (it's not boiling but there are small bubbles along the edges). This usually takes about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in the chopped chocolate and the butter until both are completely melted and mixture is smooth.

3. Pour pudding through a sieve into a heatproof bowl and set the bowl in an ice-water bath. Press plastic wrap right on top of the pudding to keep a skin from forming. Refrigerate until set for 45 minutes to an hour or up to 2 days.

4. Whip cream with confectioners sugar in a chilled medium bowl until it holds soft peaks. Serve pudding with whipped cream.











Chop chocolate and set aside. Here's how I do it:



I leave it wrapped in the bar.



I lift it over the counter top and ...

...slam it down a few times until it break apart into small pieces.

You can also rap it against the edge of the counter several times but be careful not to tear the wrapper. Set aside.

In medium saucepan, whisk together 1 cup sugar, 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, 2 Tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

I run a spatula around the edges to make sure everything well mixed.

Whisk in milk...

and 2 lightly beaten egg yolks (note: I am making a bigger batch so there are more eggs in the picture).

**This is an example where you should do as I say, not as I do. I did not beat my egg yolks before I put them in. My bad.

Cook over medium-low heat, whisking...

...until thickened. I'm always tempted to take the mixture off the stove too soon and then I end up with chocolate soup instead of pudding. So I'm going to show you several pictures of what this should look like.

You can see how thick it's starting to look. This usually takes 10 to 15 minutes of stirring.

Here's a clue to watch for. The milk begins to scald. That means it's starting to bubble around the edges of the pan but it has not come to a boil in the center of the pan. My lens got a little steamed up in the shot above. Maybe it's easier to see below.

Here...

...is a good shot of how thick the milk mixture be. It already looks like pudding. But it's not pudding yet. Because it still needs more chocolate. And butter.

Remove pan from heat.

Add 1 Tablespoon butter (I'm making a bigger batch) to hot milk mixture.

Add 4 ounces of chopped chocolate. All you have to do now is open the package you've been throwing around the kitchen and dump in the chunks and crumbs...so much neater than the cutting board method. Okay, it's not finely chopped using my method but it's chopped enough to melt quickly in the hot milk mixture. And that's all that matters.

Stir until butter and chocolate are melted and mixture is smooth.

Pour pudding through sieve into a heatproof bowl.

Put bowl in an ice-bath to jump start the cooling process.

Put plastic wrap right on the surface of the pudding to prevent skin from forming.

Refrigerate until set, 45 minutes to an hour.

You can serve it in individual bowls...4 to 6 servings depending on the bowl. But I like to serve it from a large decorative bowl.

This one is my favorite because we got it from my husband's aunt as a wedding gift. If you look carefully you can see a couple dancing beneath the trees. Very romantic.

Enjoy!