One could suppose that a chocolate pudding is just a chocolate pudding, right? Out of a box, from the ready-made shelf at the market, instant or cooked? Think again. Home-made, from good ingredients, mixed and coddled, heated and cooled, melted and stirred. Blended and done. As long as you’re a chocolate lover, you’ll enjoy this succulent pudding.
What this is not, is easy. Well, maybe it’s not that’s it’s difficult, but more like lots of steps. It’s basically a cornstarch pudding. On the side of the Kingsford cornstarch box there used to be a recipe for Blanc Mange. My mother always pronounced it blah-maaj. French, I believe. French for white pudding, I’d suppose. Well, this recipe is far from that vanilla pudding recipe, but not all that much. Dorie Greenspan has a real way about recipes – she’s thought about methods and techniques. And this method is very similar to the butterscotch pudding I made last week. Just so you know, here’s the pile of dishes I used for making this pudding:
What’s in the stack? My All-Clad copper core saucier pan (more about that in a minute), the food processor, several measuring cups, measuring spoons, whisk, a couple of small bowls, a large spoon, tasting spoons and spatulas. There are a couple of other things in this picture, but they’re incidental. Bottom line: a lot of dishes. But at the heart of it all is the pan you see leaning up against the other dishes.
About 2 years ago I decided I really wanted a saucier pan, and when I buy new pots and pans I’m mostly replacing them with All-Clad. I searched it out on the internet. Well, All-Clad has more than one grade. After reading several sources about it, I determined what I needed was the copper core. I mean, if you’re going to spend the money for a saucier pan, you might as well buy the one that will definitely conduct the heat the best. I wasn’t going to buy the all-copper one, but this one has copper throughout its core. I found it on sale at an All-Clad sort-of outlet online store. If you keep watch for these pans, you can sometimes find a bargain – this pan – the 2 quart – is currently $159.80 including a lid (I don’t have the lid and haven’t missed it). I think I got it for about 40% off regular price. It does have a slight indentation (a flaw) on the inside. But it affects the cooking ability not one whit. Sometimes you can find one listed on ebay.com, and I tried to bid on a couple of these (back 2 years ago) but am never successful buying when the ramp-up starts in the last few hours before a sale expires. Overall, ebay rarely has them, but usually they’re no bargain, IMHO.
Surely I don’t use this all that often – I’m not a French cook making sauces all the time – but when I do, it’s invaluable. The interior of the pan is a continuous smooth curve – no square corners – note the rounded bottom edge in the photo – that’s what makes it a saucier – makes for easy stirring and less chance of burning anything. Last week when I made the butterscotch pudding – filled to the brim – and when I made this chocolate pudding – again filled right up to the top edges – it was perfection. Reading the instructions carefully, I could easily have ruined the dessert had it not been in this pan. Fortunately whatever glompy bits there were in the finished pudding were pureed out in the final round in the food processor. But most importantly, there was not a solitary scorch mark in the bottom of the pan (Dorie advised about that in both recipes). I’d coveted this pan for many years, and argued with myself that I didn’t need it. I’d managed to get by most of my adult life without one. But I knew if I had one I’d be glad of it. I think it was a gift to myself one Christmas when my DH didn’t know what to get me.
So, since you may not have a saucier, keep it in mind for some future gift to yourself (especially if you do make sauces and puddings). Use your heaviest bottomed pot/pan when you make this.
Now, just a note about the pudding. Chocolate. Heavenly chocolate. The recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate. I didn’t have any, so used a bit less dark chocolate instead. I also didn’t have whole milk, so used a bit of heavy cream in place of 1/3 cups of the low-fat milk. Otherwise I made it exactly as shown. Took about 45 minutes of preparation, I would guess. Delicious? Oh yes.
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Chocolate Pudding a la Dorie Greenspan
Recipe: Dorie Greenspan’s book, From My Home to Yours
Servings: 6
2 1/4 cups whole milk — divided use
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate — melted and still warm
2 tablespoons unsalted butter — cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Getting Ready: Have six ramekins or pudding cups, each holding 4 to 6 ounces (1/2 to 3/4 cup), at hand.
2. Bring 2 cups of the milk and 3 tablespoons of the sugar to a boil in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan.
3. While the milk is heating, put the cocoa, cornstarch and salt into a food processor and whir to blend. Turn them out onto a piece of wax paper, put the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, the egg and egg yolks into the processor and blend for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the remaining 1/4 cup milk and pulse just to mix, then add the dry ingredients and pulse a few times to blend.
4. With the machine running, very slowly pour in the hot milk mixture. Process for a few seconds, then put everything back into the saucepan. Whisk without stopping over medium heat – making sure to get into the edges of the pan – until the pudding thickens and a couple of bubbles burble up to the surface and pop (about 2 minutes). You want the pudding to thicken, but you don’t want it to boil, so lower the heat if necessary.
5. Scrape the pudding back into the processor (if there’s a scorched spot, avoid it as you scrape) and pulse a couple of times. Add the chocolate, butter and vanilla and pulse until everything is evenly blended.
6. Pour the pudding into ramekins. If you don’t want a skin to form (some people think the skin is the best part), press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of each pudding to create an airtight seal. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Per Serving: 310 Calories; 23g Fat (59.3% calories from fat); 8g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 129mg Cholesterol; 152mg Sodium.
A year ago: Rosemary Pork Loin
Marie
said on June 6th, 2009:
This is one of my favourite chocolate puddings! I could easily gorge myself on it. That is one pretty nice pan! I have German pans that I bought from a Dutchman in the drive . . . long story! But they are great!