Home-Made Chocolate Pudding

Some of the dearies over at I Dare You To Eat It asked for my chocolate pudding recipe, so guess what we had for dessert on Sunday? This is easy to make, very affordable too. You can even mix the dry ingredients in advance and keep them in the pantry to save time - just measure the ingredients into jars and label them.

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Measure the dry ingredients into a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
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Use the whisk to combine the dry ingredients. (If you have them blended together in a jar, you'd just dump the dry ingredients into the pan. Easy!)
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Since I am using Morning Moo, I'm adding water. If you were not using milk powder, you would add milk. Morning Moo likes hot water...corn starch likes cold water. I use cold water and the whisk. The trick is to add just a little of the water - say, 1/3 cup (this goes for milk too) and stir to combine. This gets out any little lumps and makes it much easier to get everything to blend.
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Once you've blended in that first bit of liquid, you can add the rest - a total of 2 cups. The Morning Moo is a bit foamy at this point, but worry not! It will settle right in as the pudding begins to warm up.
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Use a medium heat and bring it to a simmer. See? It's already coming together some.
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You want to keep stirring, and let it thicken, then let it simmer/bubble for a minute or so. If you don't stir it nearly the entire time, it may scorch and stick to the pan.
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Chocolate lava...mmmm...
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Once it's cooked, add a little:
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Stir in the vanilla and pour the pudding into serving dishes. If you don't want the top of the pudding to dry out, put plastic wrap directly on it. If that doesn't bother you, then let it cool a bit, then refrigerate. Congratulations - you have pudding!

And I guess I was so happy about having pudding that I forgot to take the final pretty photo of dark, silky pudding in dessert dishes. Oopsie.

A few things you need to know:

1. Companies that sell little boxes of cook and serve pudding use 'modified food starch' instead of corn starch. Corn starch is much more readily available (and much more affordable) to the home cook, but it does 'break'. If you stir a cornstarch pudding after it cools, it can get watery. It can also crack if it dries out. If you just put the pudding into individual dessert bowls, the cornstarch works fine. You can make this pudding with modified food starch - you'll want a product called 'clear jel'. It's awesome, but pricey, and most of y'all will have to order it online. The non-instant clear jel is safety approved for home canning (you can't can pudding, but you can make and can homemade pie fillings!), and I love it for that purpose. Just FYI.

2. I use Morning Moo. I haven't tried using any other brand of powdered milk, so I don't know how it will turn out with another brand. If you use a different one, you may want to make the milk, then make pudding, rather than just tossing in the powder. Or not. I just don't know. Also, the measurement in the recipe for Morning Moo is a starting point. If you want it richer, toss in a little more.

3. We like our chocolate pudding a little on the dark side, and a little less sweet. If you want it sweeter, add an extra spoonful of sugar (the next time you make it - I'm not sure you can just dump it in at the end) and decrease the cocoa a bit.

And finally, the recipe!

Hasty Chocolate Pudding
4 servings

1/3 c. white sugar
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder (NOT hot cocoa mix!)
3 Tablespoons corn starch
pinch of salt
1/4 c. (rounded) Morning Moo powder and 2 c. water OR 2 c. milk
a few drops of vanilla extract

In a medium size saucepan with a heavy bottom, whisk together the dry ingredients. Whisk in milk or water a little at at time so the mixture does not have any dry lumps.

Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently. When it begins to bubble and boil, allow it to simmer for 1/2 minutes, until shiny an thick.

Stir in vanilla.

Spoon into individual serving bowls, small cups for lunches, etc.

Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming and chill in the refrigerator. Serve cold.

Comments

Ella said…
Yummy!!!!!!
Hugs, GG
Love me some chocolate pudding, Laura! Thank you for sharing this recipe. It's got to be so much tastier than the little box on the store shelf. I'm anxious to try it!
Unknown said…
Do you get Morning Moo locally or do you have a good source?
Laura said…
The nice thing about this is that once you tweak the ingredients (more sweet, less sweet, etc., you can pre-measure all the dry ingredients into jars or bags and it's just as easy to make as the boxed stuff from the store, but more affordabe.

Tammy, I get Morning Moo through my co-op. If you don't have a source local to you, you can order it through a company called blue chip group.
http://www.bluechipgroup.net/products.html
My parents do not have a co-op to order from - this is where they get it. Hope that helps! :)
Unknown said…
Thanks for letting me know about the milk. I am going to go ahead and order some for my lactose intolerant child to try!
Tammy

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