What's In It?: Chocolate Pudding from Scratch

Yields 6 decent-sized portions.

Homemade chocolate pudding is waaaaaayyyyyyy better than pudding from a box.

And it really isn't all that hard to make. It does take some watching and stirring and paying attention... ugh... we know how that tends to go for me :P (click here and here and here if you don't know why they call me Burning Mom)

I am going to teach you how to make it so that you, too, can enjoy a more wholesome pudding! Note: this is not the low-fat, low-cal, sugar-free healthfood version... no sireebob...

Ingredients:

1/2-cup granulated white sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

pinch of salt

2 oz. chocolate, chopped to facilitate melting ... you can use unsweetened, bittersweet or semisweet... I use bittersweet and I use 3 oz. shhhhhh....

3 whole eggs

2-1/2 cups half-and-half (but that comes in a pint size which is 2 cups, so I use one half cup of whipping cream... more of which figures in later)

2 tablespoons butter... softened or cut into small pieces for easier melting

1 teaspoon vanilla

First, put the sugar, salt and cornstarch in a medium-sized saucepan

and

get the chocolate starting to melt in a double-boiler on LOW heat.

(I use a teeny pan inside a metal bowl inside a small pan with 1" or so of water in it...

if the chocolate gets too hot, something weird and grainy happens... really)

mmmmmmmmm... melting chocolate...

While the chocolate is melting, mix the eggs and cream/milk until creamy yellow...

I like to make it frothy and so does Baby X :)

In the meantime, keep stirring the melting chocolate so that it is creamy and fully melted...

I need a stirring gadget for this, but for now the spoon handle does the trick ;-)

Pour the eggs and cream mixture into the saucepan containing the sugar, cornstarch and salt.

Set on medium heat.

Whisk thoroughly and even use a scraper to get the dry ingredients out of pan's corners

(yes, I know it's a round pan... but it does have corners!)

Here's where the hardish part comes in...

you need to almost continuously stir/whisk this mixture while it's heating until it starts thickening,

which takes about 10 minutes.

It really does take about 10 minutes every time for me.

At the same time, make sure the chocolate is smoothly melted, and once it is you need to 'cool' it...

I usually just set it on the counter and occasionally put it in the fridge for a few minutes.

When you first begin to notice the thickening, add the butter and vanilla... and keep stirring!

Once the butter is melted

(it should be soft enough or in small enough pieces that this happens pretty fast)

you whisk in the 'cooled' melted chocolate!

Keep whisking and scraping so that it is minimally lumpy and totally combined.

Once it is totally combined, pour into cups for individual servings or a larger bowl ~~for an enormous single serving~~ from which you can scoop individual servings later.