I love chocolate pudding. As a kid, I loved butterscotch the best, and I still like it, but  this here post is about chocolate. That is, I should say, I like it when I actually have the opportunity to eat pudding, which is rare. I don’t eat store bought pudding nor do I buy it, so the only pudding I eat is the pudding I make… and I don’t make it often. Why, I don’t know. Pudding is delicious.

Say, do you think I used the word ‘pudding’ enough in that paragraph?

At any rate, making this dessert from scratch is one of the easiest things to do in the kitchen, aside from opening a bag of chips. Seriously. I don’t know why people buy those boxes of instant pudding when it’s so easy to make it homemade and you can customize it. And it tastes better too. I didn’t do anything different to mine this time, but adding a caramel sauce, or layer of homemade whipped cream in the middle, or even just using another flavor extract as well as the vanilla would be amazing. Maybe coconut? Or orange? So anyway here’s Ina’s double chocolate pudding recipe, as done by me.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PUDDING

Ingredients:

nocoupons

• 6 extra-large egg yolks
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons very good cocoa powder
• Pinch salt
• 2 cups milk
• 1-ounce very good semisweet chocolate, chopped (2 tablespoons)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions:

1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until light yellow and thick in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on medium-high speed. On low speed, add the cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt. Bring the milk to a boil in a medium saucepan and, with the mixer on low, slowly pour the hot milk into the chocolate mixture. Combine well, then pour the mixture back into the pan.
2. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon, until thickened. If the mixture begins to curdle, remove it from the heat and beat it vigorously with a wire whisk. Remove the pan from the heat, add the chocolate, butter, vanilla, and heavy cream, and mix until the chocolate and butter are melted.
3. Pour into serving bowls. Place plastic wrap directly on the top of the pudding, and chill thoroughly.

Just as a side note, how cute are ramekins?

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This is like the best chocolate pudding ever. EVER! It has a taste very reminiscent of My-T-Fine pudding, but yet better. It’s comforting because it reminds you of the pudding you ate as a kid, but yet it’s different. Gotta love Ina.

You can use semisweet chocolate chips instead of block chocolate, it comes out just fine. Also, I bought my ramekins at Pier 1 Imports because they were a great buy (and an impulse purchase), but you can also get them on Amazon, or stores like Williams-Sonoma & Sur La Table. And probably any other cookware store you can think of.