I've been on a chocolate binge lately. Chocolate frosted yellow cupcakes, hot cocoa, chocolate pudding, moon pies, candy bars, sleazy Hershey's Kisses (TM), you name it - if it has any chocolate in it I've been eating it.
This has happened to innumerable people before, and will continue to happen in the future. No news there.
The only thing new was that I made chocolate pudding from scratch. This was ENTIRELY the fault of @jmfield on Twitter, who tweeted "Cheffirmation: I am never more than 15 minutes away from homemade chocolate pudding. :)". Well! I took that as a challenge.
In fact, it took me 18 minutes - mostly because my husband or son had put my whisk away in .... well .... a place I would NEVER had put it, and it took me FOREVER to find it.
One of the many joys of chocolate pudding is that the ingredients are mostly pantry-stable. I could have used powdered milk instead of fresh (and, while looking at recipes, I saw that the 'instant chocolate pudding' recipe by America's Test Kitchen uses powdered milk), I suppose I could have used baking chocolate instead of cocoa powder and butter (yes, the cocoa powder is shelf-stable, but the butter isn't), the flour and cornstarch and salt and vanilla the recipe called for last forever.
It was fast to make. It was easy. It tasted WONDERFUL.
Everyone to the kitchen, grab that 2 to 3 quart saucepan, set your timer (so you can see how fast this really is), and GO!
CHOCOLATE PUDDING - served the 3 of us because we showed some restraint
1/2 cup white sugar 2 3/4 cups skim milk
3 tablespoons dutched cocoa 2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup cornstarch 1 1/2 tablespoons amaretto
Into that saucepan you grabbed, add all the dry ingredients. Whisk them a bit to make them as smooth as possible, it helps reduce lumps later. Add the milk. Heat at medium (medium high on my stove, but your stove will vary!) until boiling, stirring constantly. Reduce to a simmer, keep stirring. Soon it will be thickened. Take off the burner, add but butter and amaretto (you may prefer the more traditional vanilla). Try to let it cool long enough that you don't burn your tongue. Can be served warm or cold.
We tasted it before the amaretto was added - it was nice, but 'flat'. Amaretto and butter kicked it up wonderfully.
Frondly, Fern
why skim? i never have that nasty stuff here! would it be as nice with full fat raw milk? i have no amaretto. maybe almond extract?
ReplyDeletei do love me some chocolate pudding.
thanks, babes! this looks terrific.
:) khairete
suz
I'm sure it would be even better with full fat milk, my dear. You might not need as much butter at the end, of course. And most recipes call for 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract rather than amaretto - modify it as your taste and kitchen/liquor cabinet dictate. Or come over for some amaretto.
ReplyDeleteBTW - when you next make french toast, add some amaretto to the egg mix. It'll rock your world.
I think you missed the time I brought a bottle of cognac/amaretto mix liquor up to the Mountain? Just as smooth as Hot Sex, but stronger with no sugar high.
I should have just blogged a love poem to Amaretto.....