Chocolate pudding cups topped with whipped cream
I bet you didn't know that. I didn't either because I just made it up!
Pudding is one of those desserts that I never think of making for myself. Probably because pudding evokes memories of "box pudding". (Does anyone remember those "pudding cakes" where you punch holes in a sheet cake and pour liquidy pudding over the top?) But whenever I have a really good one I say to myself, "Self, you should really make some pudding some day."
That "some day" finally arrived. And not just one day, but a whole month of days! I decided to spend a month making puddings (okay, maybe just two a week or so), getting to know this dessert in a much more intimate way (hey, not what you're thinking) than just trying out a recipe, saying "Mmmmm, that was good!", and then moving on to the next thing.
One thing I noticed (so far, with my vast experience of making two puddings): basic creamy smooth pudding-from-scratch is really easy to make, but you do need to plan ahead as you'll need at least several hours of chilling time. At least based on the recipes I've looked at so far.
Another thing I noticed: making pudding from scratch generates a lot of surplus egg whites. So February is not only the month of pudding, it is inadvertently the month of egg whites, too.
That said, let me get on to the pudding. I've kicked off my "February is Pudding month" with this chocolate pudding recipe from Tyler Florence (click through for recipe), featured on his FoodTV show Tyler's Ultimate.
Tyler uses cocoa powder, which makes this pudding extremely simple. And it cooks up quickly. In fact, the main thing I learned doing this pudding was that it's a very thin line between "just done" and "Oh my gawd, it's starting to separate! Quick, quick! Off the heat!". Fortunately, it still tasted great, and with whipped cream on top no one could see that the pudding wasn't perfectly smooth and glossy. I think the trick with pudding is that you don't cook it until it is as thick as the finished pudding will be. You cook it a little less, and it will firm up when chilled.
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