Who doesn’t like chocolate pudding? That’s what we thought, too, so we decided to make some up for our Sunday dinner. Of course, we decided that before we had a recipe in mind, so afterward we set out to find one. We found several, some that seemed pretty involved for a simple dish, and a couple that looked pretty easy, including the one we settled on from Baker’s Famous Chocolate Recipes. This little tome was published by Baker’s in 1943 so it has a some interesting tips and ideas on “how to meet these very special times and needs.” I.e., World War II. We figured the least we could do is try out one or two of the recipes used and consumed by the greatest generation.
The recipe itself is relatively straightforward, too, and, although it was originally served six people, all the ingredients could be scaled up or down pretty easily. So we scaled it back to 2.
Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 Tbs flour
- Pinch salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 square 1 ounce Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients. Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in the top of a double boiler.
- Add the milk. While still whisking, add the cup of milk, making sure to mix very well.
- Add the chocolate.
- Place over boiling water. Cook and stir until thickened.
- Cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add vanilla, place in small bowls and chill in the fridge.
Ingredients discussion:
Really, the only thing we’ll say is that for the vanilla, use only 100% real vanilla. Never, never, never use imitation vanilla. Yeah, we know vanilla is expensive, but the flavor of real vanilla is so much better, so it’s always worth it. In the future, we’ll show you how you can make your own vanilla extract, saving you $$$.
Procedure in detail:
Combine dry ingredients. Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in the top of a double boiler. We happen to have an insert that will fit right into a small saucepan. Perfect. You can also use two pans that somewhat nest. Or a heatproof bowl that will fit over a saucepan. Just find something that’ll work. Then take the 30 seconds to get everything mixed thoroughly; you don’t want to have any lumps in the pudding.
Add the milk. While still whisking, add the cup of milk, making sure to mix very well. Nothing worse than hitting a lump in pudding, right?
Add the chocolate. Just toss the one-ounce bar right into the milk. Don’t worry about chopping it, it’ll melt in a few minutes.
Place over boiling water. Cook and stir until thickened. We used a whisk to make sure there wouldn’t be lumps.
Cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. These last 10 minutes eliminate the flour taste in the pudding. It’s just like when you make a flour gravy, or a flour-based roux, you’ll want to cook it for about 10 minutes to get rid of the raw flour taste.
Add vanilla. Then place in small bowls and chill in the fridge. To prevent a skin from forming on top of the pudding, you can cover the surface with plastic wrap. Yep, right on the surface of the pudding, not just covering the dish. Take the plastic off before serving.
Lick out the bit of pudding left in the double boiler. It is super-chocolatey.
Enjoy your 100% scratched chocolate pudding. We give it 5 stars, easy as from a box, but super chocolate flavor.