Making Real Pudding is Real Easy

Meeting people who enjoy food but don’t cook is always thrilling. Getting someone who doesn’t much care about what they eat to actually cook something is next to impossible. But for those who actually taste what they put in their mouths, cooking provides an opportunity for them to get more pleasure from their meals.

People take short cuts. I get that. And there are some things that taste better made by professionals than home cooks. I’m not advocating that anyone make their own ketchup.

But things like tomato sauce, popcorn, and hot cocoa are no brainers. Albany Jane has inspired me to make my own orecchiette, but there are some great dried Italian pastas you can buy. Pop over to The Cheese Traveler, and they’ll tell you what makes the ones at the store so special.

Recently my new buddy Innae was tweeting that she bought some instant pudding. Now Innae loves food, and she was totally open to the idea of making her own pudding from scratch.

So to get her a recipe, I turned to a professional.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen the chocolate pudding tartlets at All Good Bakers. Actually, I don’t know if I’ve seen them at the new location. But these were something special. Chocolate pudding in a buttery pie crust shell and topped with freshly whipped cream from one of our small local dairies.

At their heart they were chocolate pudding. So I asked Britin if she would be inclined to share the recipe. Agreeing, she pulled down a beloved and tattered family cookbook from the early 1960s that is held together with tape. It may not share the guiding principles of the restaurant in which it now resides, but it’s a great resource for classic American dishes. Like pudding.

Here are the ingredients:
⅔ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups milk
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Here is what you do with them:
1. Combine the sugar, salt and cornstarch in a saucepan.
2. Over medium heat gradually add milk, then chocolate.
3. Stir constantly until the liquid comes to a boil.
4. Let it boil for one minute longer.
5. Add a little of the hot milk mixture to the beaten egg.
6. Then whisk the warmed egg into the saucepan.
7. Cook, stirring constantly until it thickens.
8. Off heat add butter and vanilla.
9. If desired, beat with a hand mixer to make it extra smooth
10. Cool slightly and spoon into serving dishes.

It’s pretty much a one pot deal. You just need the saucepan and a bowl for beating the egg. Plus in the fall and winter this is a great excuse to stand over a simmering pot of something warm and delicious. Is it more work than just adding milk to a pre packaged powder? Most definitely. But that powder isn’t magic, it’s a feat of engineering. For comparison, here’s what’s in Jell-O’s instant chocolate flavored pudding:

Sugar, Modified Cornstarch, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Disodium Phosphate (for Thickening), Contains Less than 2% of Natural and Artificial Flavor, Salt, Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate (for Thickening), Mono- and Diglycerides (Prevent Foaming), Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Artificial Color, BHA (Preservative).

Fundamentally it’s the same thing, just without the non-cornstarch thickeners, artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives. Plus you can use really great chocolate if you like, or simply call upon bakers chocolate as the original recipe suggested.

Good luck Innae. I know that I still owe WrigsMac a recipe for minute steaks, that’s coming. I have not forgotten. I also still need to send Sabre her package of bacon things for winning the post BaconFest giveaway. I’m really behind on a lot of things. Thank you all for your patience as I get through the backlog.

I’m going to blame all the Tournament of Pizza judging. But soon we’ll have a winner, and hopefully I’ll be able to catch up on a bunch of loose ends.