I have no excuses for this one. It’s all chocolate, sugar, heavy cream, butter, and eggs. Grab a spoon and put on your fat pants.
Move over, Jello. That’s all I have to say.
Warm pudding
When it’s warm, it’s really thick but has a more traditional pudding consistency. When it’s chilled, however…oh, oh, oh!…it almost approximates soft fudge. Or thick chocolate frosting. (Warning: A little goes a long way.)
Chilled pudding
This is a great�and unexpected�dessert to serve at a dinner party. For an elegant presentation, spoon the warm pudding into Japanese tea cups.
Serve chilled and garnished with a dollop of fresh whipped cream that’s been laced with a few drops of chocolate liqueur.
Oh, and this pudding is vegetarian (but not vegan) safe. It’s thickened with egg yolks and flour, not gelatin, like most commercial chocolate pudding mixes. I first made this years ago for a veggie friend when he had his wisdom teeth out.
Sinfully Rich Chocolate Pudding
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa (**not hot chocolate mix with sugar in it)
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter (that’s 8 Tbls., or 1 stick), cut into large pieces
Serves about 8, if you share
Sinfully Rich Chocolate Pudding: Separate the eggs
Skip ahead if you know how to do this. If you don’t, here are simple instructions for how to separate the eggs.
Grab two small bowls and your eggs. You’re going to let the egg whites run off into one bowl, and put the egg yolks in the other.
Crack an egg over one bowl. Carefully pour it into one hand. You don’t want to break the yolk.
With the yolk sitting on your palm or fingers, let the egg white run between your fingers into the bowl.
Put the egg yolks into your other bowl. Don’t fret if you get a little egg white in with the yolks. That’s just fine.
Repeat with the other eggs until you have your 4 yolks.
Cover the egg whites with plastic wrap and stick them in the fridge. Use within a day. (Not sure what to do with those leftover egg whites? Make an Fresh Herb Egg White Omelet.)
Sinfully Rich Chocolate Pudding: Mix the dry ingredients
Put the cocoa powder in a large bowl.
Toss in the flour, sugar, and salt.
Mix with a whisk to combine the ingredients.
You want to wind up with a uniform mixture.
Sinfully Rich Chocolate Pudding: Add the wet ingredients
Pour the cream into the dry ingredients.
Start to whisk the cream in.
Mix the egg yolks with a fork to break them up.
Pour the egg yolks into the mixture.
Whisk until the mixture is totally uniform.
Sinfully Rich Chocolate Pudding: Cook the pudding mixture
Pour the pudding mixture into a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Set it on the stove over medium-high heat. Whisk the mixture constantly as it heats.
Keep whisking…
As the mixture heats up, it will start to thicken. You’ll notice little air bubbles in the pudding. That’s just fine. They’ll settle out later.
Keep whisking until the mixture just starts to boil.
At this point, it should be very thick and coat the back of a spoon heavily, like this:
Turn the heat off. Toss in the butter.
Whisk to melt the butter.
Keep whisking until the butter is totally incorporated.
It should be thick and glossy.
Sinfully Rich Chocolate Pudding: Let the pudding cool
Pour the hot pudding out into a large bowl.
Or into smaller, individual bowls.
If you can wait, let the pudding cool to room temperature before serving, to let it set up a little more.
For a considerably thicker pudding, chill it completely.
If it’s too thick when it chills completely, loosen it up a little by warming it up in a double boiler.
Enjoy!
