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Chocolate Pudding

Homemade chocolate pudding! Enjoy chocolate pudding the way it is supposed to be made, from scratch, with basic pudding ingredients of cocoa powder, sugar, milk, egg, and chocolate chips.

Elise Bauer

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

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Elise Bauer
Updated April 30, 2021
Elise Bauer
Glass cups of chocolate pudding.
Sally Vargas

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.

Cups and spoons to eat homemade pudding.
Sally Vargas

An Easy Chocolate Pudding Recipe

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, the egg doesn't cook and curdle in the chocolate pudding.

Then, you need to pour the chocolate pudding into individual ramekins and chill for a few hours before it's officially ready to eat.

Glass cup of homemade chocolate pudding.
Sally Vargas

Tips to Make Sure Your Chocolate Pudding Sets

For whatever reason, your pudding might not be setting. Here are a few tricks that might help:

  • Be sure not to overcook or undercook the pudding. Just bring to a gentle boil while stirring, since cornstarch won't set unless it's briefly held at a gentle simmer (it needs to bubble). But it will turn liquid-y if overcooked. You can remove it from heat once it's started to thicken.
  • Right after cooking, put the pudding bowl over an ice bath and stir every few minutes. The rapid chilling helps the pudding set faster.

How to Store Chocolate Pudding

For easy serving, you can store the pudding in individual ramekins or small canning jars with lids. Homemade chocolate pudding can also be frozen up to three months. Do know that the texture might change a bit when frozen. Defrost completely and stir the pudding before serving again.

More Chocolate Pudding Recipes

From the Editors Of Simply Recipes

Chocolate Pudding

Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 5 mins
Chilling Time 2 hrs
Total Time 2 hrs 15 mins
Servings 4 servings

Recipe adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 3 tablespoons 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.

    Whisking melted chocolate in a pan and a glass measuring cup of cream to make chocolate pudding.
    Sally Vargas
  2. Boil and thicken the pudding:

    Bring to a boil, and whisk until the ingredients are well mixed and smooth. Stir until pudding is thick, about 3 to 5 minutes. Once the pudding starts to thicken, remove from heat.

  3. Temper the egg:

    Immediately beat the egg lightly in a medium, heat-proof bowl, such as a hard plastic, metal or ceramic mixing bowl.

    Very gradually stir the hot chocolate mixture into the egg.

    Whisking chocolate into a glass bowl to make a chocolate pudding recipe.
    Sally Vargas
  4. Add the chocolate chips:

    Whisk in the chocolate chips until they are melted and the mixture is smooth.

    Chocolate chips added to a chocolate mixture to make a chocolate pudding recipe.
    Sally Vargas
  5. Pour into ramekins and chill:

    Pour the pudding into 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 or overnight.

    Four servings of homemade chocolate pudding.
    Sally Vargas

    Optional: Serve topped with whipped cream.