#46 Chocolate Pudding

I have already made vanilla pudding, so now I wanted to try homemade chocolate. I love warm chocolate pudding so my hopes were high for this recipe.

Chocolate Pudding

4 cups whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
6 oz. chocolate, roughly chopped, semi-sweet or bittersweet

1. Combine 3 cups of milk with the sugar and salt in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan and set over medium-low heat. Heat until just steaming, stirring frequently.

2. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the cornstarch with the remaining 1 cup of milk. Stir well until mixture is fairly lump free.

3. Raise heat to medium high. Add the cornstarch mixture and cook constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture starts to bubble. Reduce heat to low and stir continuously until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the wooden spoon. About 5-7 minutes.

4. Add your chopped chocolate and stir until melted. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips.

 

 

5. Pour pudding into dishes to cool. If you do not like pudding skin, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the pudding.

 

 



 

Serve when cooled. I like my pudding warm, so I don't wait too long before eating mine.
So did the pudding meet my high expectations......not exactly. I liked it, but it really is only as good as your chocolate. Don't get me wrong, I love Nestlé's Tollhouse Morsels, but I like them better in cookies. I actually like the cook and serve chocolate box stuff better. My family liked it. Maybe if I had some fine chocolate to use...I would like it better.

#27 Vanilla Pudding

I love pudding...well, let me re-phase that...I love warm chocolate pudding. One of my favorite treats is that cook and serve chocolate pudding that you make from the box. I even like the skin:) But it must be warm...or forget it! So I was excited to see homemade pudding recipes in the book. I decided to start with vanilla to make good use of my awesome vanilla beans.

Vanilla Pudding

4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 vanilla bean or 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup cornstarch

1. Combine 3 cups of the milk with the sugar and salt in a heavy bottomed medium saucepan and set over medium heat. If using, scrape seeds from the vanilla bean and put in milk...toss the whole bean in too. Heat until steaming, stirring frequently.

2. In a small bowl combine cornstarch and remaining cup of milk. Stir well until mixture is fairly lump free. Take out vanilla bean, rinse and add to your homemade vanilla extract.

3. Raise the heat to medium high and add cornstarch mixture and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture just starts to bubble. Reduce heat to low and stir continuously until mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon, 5-7 minutes.

4. If you are using vanilla extract instead of a bean, now is the time to add it. Pudding will thicken as it chills. Pour into individual dishes and chill before serving...unless you are like me and you like warm pudding:) If you do not like the skin, press plastic wrap against the surface while it chills.
You can store in the fridge, in individual covered containers, for 2-3 days.

Most of my kids liked it....my hubby and I liked it...but as I said before...chocolate is my fave! So I can't wait to try that! I definitely will try to make pudding homemade from now on....it is not really any more difficult, than the box stuff and I actually think it might be faster. The vanilla is for sure tastier, with a more authentic vanilla flavor!