About this Recipe

For those of us that have been around a few decades and went to "Brownies" as very little girls, to get your cooking badge you had to learn to make pudding. It is a simple enough process and a popular treat for little children. Simple dessert recipes like pudding require only a few basic ingredients. Puddings can also be used as the filler between a double layer cake, or the filler for an eclair puff. If you wanted to make this an even more nutritious snack, you could slice up some fresh banana in it. Strawberries also go very well with a good chocolate pudding. How about a chocolate pudding pie. This simple pudding over a graham wafer crust with some homemade whipped cream and some fresh banana and strawberry slices gives you just one idea of an amazing dessert that starts with a simple homemade pudding.

Grandmother's Tips for Homemade Chocolate Pudding recipe:

1. If you have pudding lovers in your house, learn to make your own pudding. It is very easy to do and you know the ingredients are all natural so you end up with a healthy snack food for the kids.

2. When the pudding is ready, make it convenient to eat as a lunch snack by dividing right away into small containers with lids.

3. We show this recipe being made with whole milk, but you can substitute non-dairy milk for your pudding.

4. If you happen to scorch the pudding, strain it through a fine metal sieve.

4. Use a good quality dark chocolate that is at least 70% cacao.

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Ingredients

(Print)

Makes 2 cups pudding (4 1/2 cup size servings)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups whole milk (or you can use a lower percent fat milk, almond milk or other non-dairy milk of your choosing)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon butter, at room temperature

2 ounces dark chocolate, use a good quality bittersweet, finely chopped

Directions

1. Measure the sugar, salt and cornstarch into a medium size saucepan and stir to combine.

2. Stir in the milk.

3. Turn the heat onto medium and heat the mixture, stirring to dissolve and combine all the ingredients.

4. Continue to cook and stir with a rubber spatula until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Do not boil.

5. Remove the saucepan from the heat as soon as the mixture is ready so the bottom does not scorch. If it does scorch, strain through a fine metal sieve.

6. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and butter.

7. Add the finely chopped chocolate to the hot mixture and stir to combine.

8. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

ENJOY!

Return to this Homemade Chocolate Pudding recipe or check out more recipes at Grandmother's Kitchen

Although there are several pudding flavors you could make, it would seem the most popular flavor for children is chocolate. You will notice there are no eggs used in this pudding recipe. Puddings require a thickening agent to form the smooth creamy texture. This recipe uses cornstarch. Flour is another type of thickening agent and so are arrowroot, potato starch and tapioca. You will find some recipes that use these ingredients instead of the cornstarch and one can usually be substituted for the other.

You do need to do your research when you are making substitutions. For example according to Epicurious, you would would use 3 tablespoons of flour for every one tablespoon of cornstarch. Flour typically must be cooked longer than cornstarch when used as a thickening agent so you get rid of the raw flavor of the flour. Flour is a good stable thickening agent, but does not give the same shiny gloss you get from a cornstarch.

If you plan to use arrowroot powder as a substitute in pudding, you use 2 teaspoons of arrowroot flour for 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Arrowroot powder has a very neutral flavor, so some people like it even better than cornstarch.