Sunday, April 10, 2011

Chocolate Pudding

I've been seeing these commercials on TV for some kind of adult puddings, and they look appealing and unappealing at the same time. And a little confusing.

First, short of putting booze or caffeine into pudding, I don't really know what would make it adult-only. And second, if I'm thinking about pudding, I'm probably looking for a nostalgic kid-like experience rather than an adult-only one.

And anyway, isn't chocolate mousse supposed to be the adult version of pudding?

Maybe the aforementioned "adult" puddings are supposed to be for adult palates because they have better ingredients. Or maybe they're not tooth-achingly sweet. Now, that I could get behind.

With the pudding commercials rattling around in my brain, I was an easy target for a pudding recipe on Serious Eats. The recipe was for a half-batch of dark chocolate pudding and a half-batch of milk chocolate pudding. Then you layer it in individual-serving containers.

Luckily, I had all the ingredients on hand: sugar, corn starch, salt, milk, egg yolks, unsalted butter, vanilla, and chocolate. Cocoa powder was optional; I left that out. And instead of making half of it with milk chocolate, I threw caution to the wind and made it all dark chocolate.

I've made puddings before using cornstarch as a thickener, and I've made custards thickened with egg yolks. This pudding uses both. I don't know how common that is. Truthfully, I don't make pudding very often. Usually I'm making pastry cream for pastries, or I'm making custard for ice cream. It's been a long time since I've made a pudding just to be a pudding.

But this chocolate pudding was calling to me, so I indulged. 

Mmmmm... this was good pudding. I used chocolate that I liked, which is most of the battle. But the pudding wasn't overly sweet, which was also appealing.

I tried some with a dollop of Greek yogurt on top, and the tartness of the yogurt made the pudding seem a little sweeter. It was an interesting contrast, and a bit of a surprising combo, considering that you might normally top pudding with sweetened whipped cream. I'm thinking that a parfait of Greek yogurt and pudding might be very interesting.

I think I'll keep this one in my toolbox.
Yum

3 comments:

alicia - Bakeaholic said...

Yum yum yum! I love pudding, so much better than jello! ;) I've never made it either, perhaps I will now!

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking, "I too can do this..." and I certainly like good chocolate. However, After some 'adult' thought, I'd rathre have a mousse. Any Ideas?

Donna Currie said...

I've been meaning to try the mousse recipe that's just chocolate and water. It sounds interesting.

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