Thursday Thirteen--Happy Chocolate Pudding Day!

Mike's basic recipe:
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate.
splash of vanilla.
Whisk this together--well, you can't whisk in the chunks of unmelted chocolate, but you get the idea.

Cook, stirring constantly, over medium to medium high heat. This will take several years--or it'll feel that way. Don't stop stirring and don't turn the heat too high. Once it starts making volcanic blopping bubbles, turn down the heat and cook (stirring! never stop stirring!) for another minute. Eat hot or cold or warm the way it is or with one/some of the THIRTEEN VARIATIONS.
1. chocolate chips sprinkled on top . They melt a bit. Yum.
2. a couple of teaspoons of butter added after you take stuff off heat. Stir it in. I don't think it adds enough to be worth the extra calories, but some people like it a lot.
3. A couple of teaspoons of Kahlua
4. Or a tinge of mint (I say bleh, but some people like it.)
5. Grand Marnier
6. use a tad less corn starch or a tad more milk. Beat an egg or two. Just as the pudding does its bloop, bloop stage, add some hot pudding to the egg mixture, stirring a lot, then put the eggs in the pudding. DON'T let it go back to a boil or it'll turn ucky, but do heat thoroughly to make sure the eggs are cooked.
7. In a separate container, whip some cream. When the pudding has cooled a bit, fold in the whipped cream to make it lighter.
8. I suppose you can use Cool Whip if you want to do the same thing. But really. Sheesh.
9. A couple of teaspoons of hellaciously strong coffee. Yum. Or espresso powder.
10. Make a pie:
graham cracker crust (package of graham crackers, coupla tablespoons melted butter, maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon. Grind it up in food processor or in a plastic bag. Press into pie pan and cook for 10 minutes or so at 350) Pour pudding into your crust.
11. Pie variation. If you want to get way too fancy, make some ganache (about a cup of whipped cream boiled with a couple of teaspoons of sugar, maybe. Take off heat, add a lot of chopped up bittersweet chocolate and some butter, stir until melted) and pour a layer of ganache into the pie pan on top of the crust. You can add the rest of the ganache to the pudding and the pie sets more solid later. Richer, too. Have to wait for this one to set, though.
12. layer the pudding with fun stuff in fancy clear glass containers. Very impressive looking. Use whipped cream and ganache and crumbled cake or cookies. Fruits (like strawberries) are fun too, but I think fruit and ganache go better than fruit and pudding.
13. Make that kid's dirt treat with the pudding as bottom layer, crumbled Oreos on top and shove in some gummy worms.

Comments

  1. Oh, yum. The last time I visited my dad, he made chocolate pudding pie... and expounded on the physics behind the perfect pie crust. I have to admit, he does make a damn good crust. :)

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  2. This sounds yummy. I have a real weakness for chocolate.

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  3. darla, I say anyone who can make the flour/shortening/water crust turn out consistently good is allowed to deliver lectures. I hit it right about 80 percent of the time but that's after a lot of years of practice.

    shelley, happy pudding day! Every day is chocolate day I think.

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