We have been having a mud pie week; digging in the sand and dirt, slapping cakes on the ground, and decorating with whatever foliage is around. We have been enjoying the fading summer, and connecting with each other as we dig in the dirt.
All the talk of mud pies, however, had me craving some form of chocolate dessert and I had to dig through my cupboards to see what was on hand. Butter, check. Eggs, check. Cocoa powder, check. Sugar, check. Cornstarch, no go.
Will flour do? Turns out it will. It will do just fine and we get to make ourselves a delicious pudding, free of all the preservatives and dye in the store-bought varieties. Why there has to be three different food colorings to make chocolate pudding brown, I don’t understand.
I like to pretend I am healthy when getting my chocolate fix in, and then…you know, top it with whip cream and graham crackers for added health benefits. Or added taste, probably that one.
Ingredients
1/4 Cup Butter (half stick)
Pinch of Salt
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
2/3 Cup Cocoa
3 Tablespoons Flour
1/2 Tablespoon Vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups of milk
Directions
Step 1- Melt butter over low heat. Measure out; milk, eggs, and vanilla in one measuring cup. Whisk together.
- If you are making this with a small child, this may also be a good time to wipe up the egg that was cracked on the counter while said child is attempting to carry it with salad tongs. This doesn’t happen in your home? Yeah, mine either *sigh*
Step 2- When butter has melted, pour it into the cup with the liquids.
Step 3- Add all dry ingredients to the pot and whisk together before putting on stove. There is a chance of clumping with pudding and having your wets and drys well incorporated prior to adding heat will help with that.
Step 4- Pour in wet ingredients and whisk well. Return to stove-top and bring to a simmer, whisking constantly for 15 minutes. You may want to have some music queued up, or a podcast ready to go. I took the time to exchange stories with my four year old. This activity was meant as a bonding moment for us, so it seemed most fitting. My kids do enjoy cooking with me but, for some reason, it is only the recipes with sugar that hold their interest the entire time. Go figure.
- It takes every bit of the 15 minutes to thicken so don’t think it isn’t working. Just keep cooking over a medium-low heat and whisk like crazy.
When your 15 minutes are up, set the pudding aside to set up for a few moments, or stick it in the fridge to cool. It just depends on if you want a hot dish or a cold pudding.
We opted to let it cool for a few hours and bribe the kids through meal time. Then fix it up with Whip Cream and Graham Crackers. The chocolate streaked smiles let me know, this was a success.
Featured below is my favorite measuring cup. This helps measure those large quantity liquids well and allows you room to whisk eggs and milk together inside the cup. I use this constantly for baking, scrambling eggs, making sourdough pancakes and pouring right on the griddle. It is an all around wonderful tool and made the measuring task in this recipe much simpler. Click here to check it out on my amazon page.
Fireweed Faith 