Addie loves looking at our Bon Appetit magazine. One of the features titled r.s.v.p. is a section where readers request their favorite restaurant recipes. In the January 2014 issue, Addie saw a black and white drawing of what appeared to be ice cream. Naturally, she asked me to make it. Turns out that the picture was of dark chocolate pudding with crushed pretzels on top.
Over the holidays, Addie had some vanilla pudding that her grandmother made. She’d been talking about pudding non-stop and kept asking me to make her some. I finally took out the Bon Appetit magazine and made her the pudding.
This pudding was nothing short of amazing. It was smooth, silky and very chocolate-y. In fact, it is probably one of the best puddings I’ve ever tasted. Addie had a bowl, and I only allowed her to have half of it so she could save the other half for the next day, and understandably, the girl threw a fit. I’m talking about a high-pitched scream fest that had the ability to wake the neighbors type of tantrum. Thankfully, she was all smiles again when she got to eat the other half of her pudding the next day, but I still don’t think our lesson on portion control got through to her. Maybe another day.
This recipe is from a restaurant called High Cotton in Charleston, SC and was requested by a reader named Suzy in Boca Raton, FL. Now it’s something that will be constantly requested by our 3.5 year old.
Dark chocolate pudding
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder preferably Dutch process (I used Hershey's Dark)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 large egg yolks
- 2 cups whole milk I used 2%
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 vanilla bean split lengthwise (I omitted)
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate melted, slightly cooled
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Fresh whipped cream for serving optional
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, milk and heavy cream. Scrape the vanilla seeds into the bowl and add the vanilla bean pod.
- Add the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan (with the cocoa powder mixture) and keep whisking until the mixture is smooth.
- Turn the stove on to medium high and constantly whisk the mixture until it starts to boil. Reduce the heat to medium and keep whisking for another ~4 minutes or until the mixture becomes very thick (enough to coat the back of a spatula). It should resemble a slightly thinner version of regular pudding.
- Take the saucepan off the heat and turn off the stove. Whisk in the melted chocolate, butter and vanilla extract. Keep whisking until the mixture thickens to the consistency of pudding.
- Strain the pudding through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl. Then transfer the pudding into individual jars, bowls or containers. Cover the pudding with plastic wrap and make sure to put the plastic wrap directly on top of the pudding so a skin does not form during the cooling process. Place the pudding into the refrigerator and allow to cool for at least 4 hours.
- Serve with fresh whipped cream or crushed pretzels if desired.
Notes