Salted Chocolate Pudding
This is a perfect Valentine’s day treat if I’ve ever seen one. We got hooked on those little glass jars of chocolate pudding when they were on sale. The ingredients were pretty good! They were convenient! But if I was being honest they were also expensive and could be even better quality if I made them at home. This is how we build kitchen confidence. We tackle a recipe that we’ve never considered making from scratch and realize, huh, that wasn’t so bad after all and WOW! that tastes even better than store bought! Now making chocolate pudding from scratch isn’t intimidating in the least. I promise you can do it and you will NOT regret it!
Ingredients:
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (about 65%-70%)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup cacao or cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Whipped Topping:
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoons powdered sugar
pinch of salt
crumbled chocolate cookies or shaved chocolate for topping if desired
Directions:
Chop the chocolate and put in a large bowl. In a medium sized pot, heat the cream, milk, cocoa powder, and 6 tablespoons of the sugar (save the rest for later). Whisk it consistently until it comes to a simmer. It should take about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat. In another bowl, whisk together the rest of the sugar (6 more tablespoons) with the egg yolks, arrowroot powder, salt, and vanilla until the mixture is pale in color and a bit foamy. Ladle a bit of the hot cream-milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture and whisk well. Add a bit more at a time whisking all the while, until you’ve added about a half the hot cream mixture. Doing it slowly makes it so the eggs don’t scramble. At this point, add the blended milk-egg yolk mixture to the rest in the pot and whisk well. Turn the heat back on and cook for about 5 minutes at medium heat. It will start to thicken and bubble. You’ve just made custard, my friend!
While the mixture is still quite hot, pour it over that chopped chocolate (I haven’t forgotten about it!). Let it sit for a minute to melt the chocolate and use a whisk to mix it into a super silky pudding! Pour into your serving dish, like a wide bowl or an 8x8 baking dish and spread it flat. If you want to avoid a skin forming, place plastic wrap directly on the top of the pudding and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours before serving. To make the whipped topping, whisk the cream in a large bowl until it’s starting to thicken. It will take about 5 minutes or so depending on how quick your whisk is! Add the powdered sugar and pinch of salt and continue to whisk until you have a light fluffy cloud of whipped cream! Pile on top of the pudding and adorn with chocolate shavings or crumbled chocolate cookies (OR BOTH!). Enjoy!
