Making Chocolate Pudding

If I were to give this a name, I’d call it serious, I-ain’t-playin’-no-games chocolate pudding. Unlike conventional American-style chocolate puddings it has bar chocolate mixed into it, which gives it extra body and deeper chocolate flavor. It’s not chocolate-mousse-thick, it’s much lighter than chocolate mousse, but you know when you take your first spoonful: there’s real chocolate in there. Start by assembling your ingredients. Combine the dry ingredients in a small saucepan.

Whisk’em.

Add the milk.

Whisk that in and put it over medium-high heat until it comes to the boil.

Remove the pan from the heat and pour about a third of the hot mixture over the egg yolks (nope, they won’t cook).

Whisk that.

Then pour the egg mixture back into the milk mixture.

Return the pan to the heat and whisk the pudding until it comes back to a simmer (it won’t take long) and simmer for another 20 seconds or so. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the butter.

Add the chopped chocolate.

Whisk until everything’s melted, then add the vanilla and rum if you like.

Pour it into a bowl and cover it with plastic. Let it sit for 30 minutes, giving it a stir once or twice (this is a stirred custard, remember).

You can eat it warm or do it the way I do it and thoroughly chill it first. Because I likes me some cold puddin’. And now I’m done with both the faux Kentucky accent and the week. A happy Fourth of July to all Yankees — and Southerners — everywhere!

36 thoughts on “Making Chocolate Pudding”

  1. No using the Viking today?
    You’d be famous on your block in no time (if you aren’t already, that is).

    1. I figured I’d give it a rest for the Independence Day weekend. Well observed, Uptight!

      – Joe

  2. I like me some cold pudding too. Just isn’t the same room temp or warm. Why don’t the yolks cook? Just curious. You always hear dire warnings about adding hot liquid to eggs and cooking them unless you temper them first. Is it because it is only yolks or is there some other reason? Inquiring minds want to know. I seriously want to eat the screen when I look at that bowl of pudding.

    1. Hey Linda! In fact this process is tempering. The yolks just never have a chance to reach cooking temperature before they’re added back to the main batch. The process steadily heats and dilutes them with starch and sugar, which simultaneously prevent clumping and curdling. Pretty cool!

      – Joe

      1. I am always afraid about the eggs when I add my molten chocolate to the rest of the brownie mass I used to make. What calms me is me stirring a lot to dilute the heat, but at the same time, that makes my arm sad.

        Thanks Joe!

        1. Ha! I guess you can’t win, uptight! 😉

          But you need not fear the cooking too much. A little stirring with eliminate the risk.

          Cheers,

          – Joe

  3. I made a batch of this stuff last night, and my boys practically inhaled it. I used egg whites in the batter for our fried fish, and I had to do something with those leftover yolks, so what better choice than chocolate pudding!

    1. I certainly can’t think of one! Can I come over for dinner next time? Because that meal sounds fantastic.

      Many thanks for the note, youngster!

      – Joe

    1. I’m with you, Susan. I know a lot of people hate that but I’ve always loved it.

    2. It’s Mrs. Pastry’s too. Me, I’m not as big a fan…but to people like my wife it’s like chocolate crack. Who am I to judge?

      – Joe

    1. Excellent point, Jim! Mrs. Pastry is crazy about that chocolate. I should make her up a(nother) batch!

      – Joe

  4. This recipe is tempting me to brave the heat & give it a go! Maybe I will too.

    NB- I absolutely love your blog & the way you take time to answer questions! 🙂

    1. I do my best, Pooja! 😉

      Please let me know what you think of the pudding…the heat shouldn’t interfere with it and there’s nothing like cool chocolate pudding on a hot day!

      – Joe

  5. I wish I could say that this turned out for me, but it didn’t — although I was hoping it would given the short list of ingredients (I picked up a gallon of whole milk and the chocolate just to try it).

    Everything seemed to be going well, although I thought the chocolate milk mixture was a little too foamy after whisking the milk in, which caused me to have a little trouble with deciding whether or not the mixture was boiling as stated in the recipe.

    I was also afraid of cooking the mixture too long after whisking 2/3 of the heated milk mixture with the eggs, but I thought what I ended up with would thicken up even more once I let it sit (and cool for a couple hours in the fridge). A lot of that has to do with the fact that I cannot stand the taste of “semi-scorched” chocolate (a fixture with many a brownie recipes in the past).

    Unfortunately, I had something that was more like chocolate soup (or a thickened hot chocolate). I’m not complaining, because it was absolutely delicious [and much better than a powdered JELLO mix I was familiar with as a kid], but: it was not as thick as your final picture with the recipe.

    What went wrong?

    1. Sorry to hear that, Andrew! But that’s a conundrum. Do you think you could have left out the cornstarch? Because if it was in there and the mixture came to the boil it should have been fairly thick before you ever incorporated the egg yolks. Those yolks do add some body, but the lion’s share of the thickening comes from the cornstarch…and it definitely needs to boil in order to give the pudding the right texture.

      – Joe

      1. Thank you for the reply, Joe. The cornstarch was there, so I’m guessing that I didn’t let the mixture boil long enough before tempering the yolks and returning the pot to the the stove to finish? But: I was unsure, because I had little lumps of chocolate bubbling up to the surface BEFORE I assumed it was boiling. Maybe it was simmering instead of boiling like I thought?

        It had a great flavor, so I’ll try again soon. The only question I have is: Should the mixture be whisked constantly after it first comes to a boil?

        1. Hey Andrew!

          It does get foamy when you whisk in the chocolate, I should make a note of that in the recipe. Otherwise, yes you should whisk the mixture gently and consistently — constantly seems too energetic a word for it — as it comes up to temperature. Hope you have better luck this time!

          – Joe

  6. This was easy and decadent – I used kinda pedestrian ingredients, Hershey cocoa and Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips, but it was still delicious.

    1. Pedestrian ingredients are all you need for this!

      Thanks for the feedback, Eric!

      – Joe

  7. Hi Mr.Joe..
    Im so excited can find your website.. I’m just starting learn to bake bout 4 times only.. I am so blur about baking becoz I never baked before so found your website is a very helpful and luck for me by seeing your tutorial from photos and text..
    Thank you so much Mr.Joe for creating this awesome website..

    Anyway I just make your chocolate pudding.. But after I put in refrigrator bout 30 minutes, it still can’t condensed.. It still liquid..
    I don’t know what’s the problem..
    Could you please help me to solve this problem for me Mr.Joe?

    Thank you and Best Regards,
    Pus

    1. Hello! And thank you for the kind words!

      I’m sorry to hear about the trouble. Could it be that the mixture didn’t come to a boil after you added the eggs?

      Let me know!

      – Joe

      1. Hi Mr. Joe..
        Sorry for the late reply.
        My pleasure Mr.Joe.. ^^

        ops, Yes Mr.Joe..you are right.. after I added the eggs, I didn’t return the pan to the heat. I just directly put the mixture into glasses and put it all in refrigerator.
        Is it the problem why the pudding cant condesed?

        Ohya Mr. Joe, Is heavy cream with whipped cream same?
        I can’t find heavy cream in my city. Just got a whipped cream.

        1. Hello!

          Yes, that was the problem. The eggs create much of the thickening. Try it again and let me know!

          Also, yes, heavy cream and whipping cream are the same thing. Cheers,

          – Joe

  8. It’s been a while since I’ve made this (or the vanilla version), but I recently tried an old Hershey’s recipe for Chocolate Pie (with no egg yolks or bar chocolate) and was a little disappointed (and it didn’t set well).

    Then, I thought of your recipe and wondered if it (and the vanilla version), would be ok to use as a filling for a 9″ pie – if the recipe amounts were doubled? Would anything need to be changed for that purpose?

    Also, after making the old Hershey’s recipe, I was wondering if it was ok – during the last cooking/heating stage – for the pudding to sputter, as long as it was stirred/whisked the entire time (before adding the butter and vanilla?) If I see sputtering, is that a good thing (or a sign that the mixture has gotten too hot?) Or, is sputtering the juncture between a simmer and a boil?

    Since the Hershey’s recipe didn’t pan out, I’m a little skittish about making pudding again – even though I know this recipe (and the vanilla version) are excellent.

    1. Hey Andrew!

      You should be able to use this for a pie. It might but a little bit soft, but you can always beef up the cornstarch in that case.

      As far as the sputtering, that’s a good thing provided it doesn’t last too long. Cornstarch needs to boil a bit to fully thicken — but 1 minute or so is the max before the cornstarch starts to “un-thicken” if you follow me.

      Let me know how it goes!

      – Joe

  9. Ok, just thought I’d ask. I’ll have to experiment.

    Thank you for the advice! 🙂

Leave a Reply to joepastry Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *