Scratch 'n Sniff

I have never, as far I know, made pudding from scratch. Until today.

Having made some strawberry jello for Bud (from a box, but I'm going to tackle making homemade flavors with gelatin this summer), Sis and I decided to make chocolate pudding with my new box of cornstarch. We made up a double boiler with a pot and stainless steel bowl and made up whole milk with 1% and half & half (that's 3 tb half & half with milk added to one cup, so here 1/2 cup + 1 tb half & half plus milk to add up to 3 cups). I had Ghiradelli double chocolate chips (6 oz = 1 cup). And we had pudding makings! Sis very carefully babysat the milk/cornstarch, less carefully helped clean up the ingredients during a lull and spilled almost the entire rest of my new box of cornstarch (that's 16 oz or so on my floor, folks), but c'est la vie. You don't cook with kids if you want your kitchen to be clean. Back to the pudding: the smell alone as we added the chips to the thickened mixture was divine as it all melted together. Mmmmmm, incomparable. And I haven't even had a real bowl of it yet, just lickings from the spoon, which was all that was left after the kids wiped clean the bowl of the double boiler and the bowl into which we strained the pudding, almost lump free because Sis stirred so well.

It's going to be a good snacktime.

(And if that's not enough, I have some new "early American" GMO-free small-kernel popcorn from Little Pops I can make! Since we've forsaken microwave for stovetop-popped, thanks to Mama Teacher.)

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Homemade Chocolate Pudding

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler, simmering gently and stirring occasionally to scrape down sides. When the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon (about 15 minutes), add the chocolate and continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes, or until the pudding is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. (I wonder if you could add almond or orange extract instead??)

2. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer and distribute into serving bowls.

3. Cover with plastic wrap (placing wrap actually against the pudding if you don't like skin) and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.

from Smitten Kitchen via John Scharffenberger