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What to do on the last day of vacation with a kid who loves to help cook, a fridge stocked with whole milk and eggs, and a pantry with cocoa, chocolate chips and sugar?
Make chocolate pudding, of course!
Pudding ingredients are basic and usually on-hand, and Aldie and I shared a wickedly good afternoon making this batch, based on a recipe from The Gourmet Cookbook.
Alden loves to help in the kitchen, not only with the cooking but with the cleaning up of the pots and pans as well.
Homemade Chocolate Pudding
This homemade chocolate pudding is easy to quickly put together, the only tricky part is slowly tempering a beaten egg with a hot cocoa mixture. By tempering the beaten egg, we slowly heat it up by adding a small amount of hot cocoa mixture to it at a time. This way it the egg doesn’t cook and curdle in the chocolate pudding.
Then, you need to pour the chocolate pudding into individual ramekins and chill it for a few hours before it’s officially ready to eat.
More Chocolate Pudding Recipes
Chocolate Pudding Recipe
Recipe from The Gourmet Cookbook.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- Pinch of salt
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 large egg
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Four 6-ounce ramekins or custard cups
Method
1 Heat cocoa milk base: Whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt in a heavy 2-quart saucepan.
Gradually whisk in the milk.
Bring to a boil, whisking constantly, and boil, whisking, until pudding is thick, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
2 Temper the egg: Immediately beat the egg lightly in a medium, heat-proof bowl, such as a hard plastic or ceramic mixing bowl.
Very gradually add the hot chocolate mixture to the egg, whisking constantly.
3 Add the chocolate chips: Whisk in the chocolate chips until they are melted and the mixture is smooth.
4 Pour into ramekins and chill: Pour the pudding into the ramekins or cups. If you want, cover the surface of each of the pudding cups with some cut out wax paper to prevent a skin from forming on the top of the pudding.
Refrigerate, covered, until cold, at least 2 hours.
Optional: Serve with whipped cream.
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One benefit of being the cook - licking the bowl
Bon Apetit!
Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Chocolate Pudding
The reason many people complain of the watery texture is the probability they are over-cooking the pudding. Starch should not be heated over 185 a F just until the pudding thickens and coats the spoon. Once the temperature goes over 185F, starch irreversibly dissolves and will not set again, starch gelatinization.
That applies to all custard and pudding or sauces thickened with starch.
Stir on low heat and stop when a pudding coats the spoon or use a thermometer and remove from heat at around 175 to 180F.
Thanks for the pointers! There’s also a possibility puddings that don’t set are because of not bringing the pudding to a full, gentle boil–the very opposite of overcooking. Cornstarch won’t thicken until it reaches the boiling point. You want to see visible bubbles rising to the top, usually around the sides of the pot, and then cook (gently) for at least a full minute for good measure. Bringing the pudding to a boil over medium heat takes longer, but it lessens the likelihood of overcooking.
Love this recipe, but used dark chocolate chips. Because that is what I had on hand needed to add touch more sugar
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Hi it tasted great when I took a taste from the bowl but it didn’t firm up in refrigerator and I left it all night. Do you know what I might have done wrong?
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Hi Gail,
What a drag, sorry to hear this! My best guess is the pudding didn’t come to a simmer. Cornstarch won’t properly thicken unless it boils. And this can feel like it takes forever when you are stirring and stirring over moderate heat. I see this recipe doesn’t give a recommended heat, or amount of time to cook–but really, that’s immaterial. I’ve made the same chocolate pudding recipe for years, and sometimes it cooks faster and sometimes it’s very slow to reach a boil.
The main point: make sure you see bubbles in the pudding mixture, and keep whisking/stirring for a fill minute once you do. This ensures the cornstarch gets activated so it sets the pudding.
What did you wind up doing with your pudding, Gail? I suppose you could freeze it into pudding pops.
This is an awesome recipe – low sugar, less eggs (most recipes call for four egg yokes).
I made the following changes to the recipe:
Instead of tempering the eggs, I mixed 1 and 1/2 cups milk with cocoa, sugar, salt, and brought to a simmer. I whisked the remaining 1/2 cup of the milk with the egg and corn starch in a separate bowl, and while whisking I slowly poured the egg mixture into the hot chocolate mixture. I turned down the heat and allowed the mixture to cook for a few minutes or until it became the consistency that I was looking for while stirring constantly.
This method makes the pudding super creamy.
I left out the chocolate chips.
I added 1/4 teaspoon almond extract.
I topped each one with a dollop of stabilized whipped cream.
Ideas:
Let the pudding cool down just a little bit then add a cup of miniature marshmallow or four regular sized. Stir until combined. Refrigerate. This will make the pudding take on a mousse light texture. It’s awesome.
Crush chocolate or regular graham crackers into the bottom of each cup before filling.
Make with 2% lactose free milk to satisfy everyone in the household.
Thanks again for sharing!
xxxxxyyyyy
I love how easily this pudding comes together. I made it with almond milk and left out the chocolate chips. However, I did eat a small bit hot topped with chocolate granola. I think if i wanted a richer chocolatier texture the chocolate chips would be awesome in it!
xxxxxyyyyy