Mom’s Chocolate Pudding

My mother was a good cook. Dinner wasn’t elaborate, but she always put an enjoyable and nutritious meal on the table, even after she came home from a long day at work. But it was the 60s and the 70s, and many of her recipes, tasty as they were, used prepackaged convenience foods. There were things in packets, things in boxes, things in tins…

…but not her chocolate pudding. There were no little square boxes there. It was 100% from scratch and it was fabulous. I can’t think of a luckier place to be than in the kitchen when the time was ripe for licking the spoon and scraping out the corners of the empty pot.

This, without further ado, is my mother’s chocolate pudding recipe, scribbled in pencil on a piece of pink paper. Who she got the recipe from, I’ll never know. But she upped the stakes by using heavy cream, which was clearly, by her notes, not part of the recipe as she received it.

The only change I’ve made is in the chocolate I use. If boutique chocolates were available in her day, she probably would have used them, so I’ve taken the liberty to make that adjustment. I’ve also slightly modified the method—she didn’t have a whisk, so the original recipe says stir, not whisk.

Mom’s Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding

If I don’t have any “top shelf” chocolate and cocoa (like Valrhona) on hand, I use Ghirardelli from the supermarket.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup cornstarch

• 6 tablespoons sugar

• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder

• Pinch of salt

• 2 ½ cups milk (half milk, half cream) Note: 1 ¼ cups of each

• 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, in pieces

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 tablespoons sweet butter

Method:

• Whisk together the cornstarch, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium saucepan.

• Add the milk and whisk until smooth, then add in the cream and whisk again.

• Put the pot onto the stove and turn the flame to medium.

• Cook the pudding, whisking constantly, until it boils and large bubbles appear on the surface—about 5 minutes.

• Add the chocolate pieces and keep whisking until the chocolate is completely melted and the pudding is smooth.

• Turn off the stove and stir in the vanilla and the butter.

• Spoon the pudding into individual ramekins or into a large serving bowl. Let it stand until it reaches room temperature and then chill before serving.

Note: Most people cover the puddings with plastic wrap pressed tightly against the surface of the pudding as soon as it’s transferred to the serving dishes, to prevent a skin from forming. Mom didn’t do that—we loved the chewy chocolate skin!

My favorite way to serve this is in martini glasses, with a dollop of whipped cream and a lemon pirouette cookie jauntily placed to look like a straw.

A piping of vanilla whipped cream on top is always a nice addition.