Talks About Food

Speaking of finding certainty in my often unstructured life, there is a quote from the movie Julie & Julia that I thought describes the appeal of baking to many folks, including me. Julie is baking chocolate cream pie, and says to her husband:

“You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That’s such a comfort.”

With that, here’s a very simple and yet very versatile recipe for chocolate pudding. This is a basic recipe for a stove top custard, that I got from my baking course. It means that you can use these same ingredients and techniques, and use it to make other kinds of stove top custards. Swap out the mocha flavoring for orange liqueur, or crème de menthe? Take out the chocolate and you’ve got crème anglaise!

Mocha Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients:

• 4 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 1 1/3 cup almond milk*
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 oz (1 tbsp) unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp of mocha flavoring*

* The original recipe calls for whole milk as well as heavy cream, but I tried it with just using almond milk, and it works just the same, it doesn’t taste any less rich.

* If you don’t happen to have mocha flavoring, you can make a batch of instant black coffee, and substitute this for the mocha. 

Gently heat the milk and sugar in a non-reactive pot (like enamel or  stainless steel). Add chocolate and melt into milk. 

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolk, cornstarch, and sugar. 

Temper the melted chocolate mixture into the yolk mixture. A little bit at a time, and whisk furiously to keep the yolk from curdling.

Pour back into the pot and cook until thick*. Finish with vanilla, mocha flavoring, and butter then strain into a bowl and refrigerate.

* If serving as a finished dessert the consistency should be thick but pourable, like regular Jello chocolate pudding. Cover the bowl with plastic, refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours. When ready to serve, just take out the individual bowls, and decorate with nuts on top, I used cashews. 

If using this for a pie filling (like chocolate cream pie), the consistency should be much thicker (like sour cream), something that you can cut into slices and hold up, not runny. Spoon pudding into a fully cooled pie crust and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Top with whipped cream and then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Read the story behind the recipe: Getting My Words Together, and Keeping Them