Intensely chocolate pudding

Some of my plans for this spring:

Spent a morning at the Japanese garden, reading.

Eat as many asparagus as I possibly can.

Have cocktails on the balcony, watching the big trees sway.

Visit Amsterdam’s open markets and parks more often.

Look for a new apartment; seriously this time.

Write.

Cook without a recipe or without jotting down the recipe of what I’m cooking.

Take my camera everywhere with me and discover beauty in the ordinary through my lens.

Not stress about the small stuff and keep focusing on my goals.

Cook more with alternative grains, sugars, fats.

Learn how to use the espresso machine, finally.

Sing more.

Find time to share more recipes here.

Like this one. Chocolate pudding.

A luscious, velvety, über chocolatey pudding, with a dollop of freshly whipped cream, because a chocolate pudding should never be served without it.

Intensely Chocolate Pudding

If you’re dreaming of the creamiest, most chocolatey and rich pudding, look no further.
I used chocolate with 55% cocoa solids but you can use 70% if you prefer a more bitter flavor. Just make sure the chocolate, as well as the cocoa you use, is of good quality.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients
120 g caster sugar
25 g corn flour
25 g Dutch-processed cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt
380 ml fresh whole milk
100 ml cream, full-fat (35%)
3 large egg yolks
95 g good quality dark chocolate 55% cocoa solids, finely chopped
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
15 g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into tiny pieces

Freshly whipped cream (unsweetened), for serving

Special equipment: fine sieve, heatproof spatula, whisk


Preparation
In a medium-sized bowl, add the sugar and sieve in the corn flour and cocoa powder. Add the salt and mix well using a wire whisk. Add 80 ml of the milk to the mixture and whisk. Then add the egg yolks and whisk well to incorporate.

Add the rest 300 ml of milk and the cream to a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat over medium-high heat just until the mixture starts to foam up around the edges, stirring with a heatproof spatula so it doesn’t catch.

Add the heated milk-cream mixture little-by-little in the cocoa-eggs mixture, whisking continuously, empty this mixture back into the saucepan and place over a low heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula. In the beginning it may seem like it won’t thicken up but don’t worry, it will. It will take about 6 minutes to thicken. Just be patient and keep stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan well, so the mixture doesn’t get stuck. Be careful not to over-heat the mixture or it will get burned. When it starts to thicken, it will start to create small lumps; at this point, switch to a wire whisk and continue whisking until the mixture becomes smooth and thickens (as thick as mayonnaise). Remove the pan immediately from the heat and pour into a bowl on top of which you have placed a fine sieve. Pass the mixture through the sieve, using a spatula to help pass it all through. In this way, you won’t have any lumps in your pudding.

Immediately add to the mixture the vanilla, the chopped chocolate and the butter and slowly fold them in using a spatula. Don’t be too aggressive with the mixing because you don’t want it to split.

At this point, if you want to serve your pudding warm, then do so. If you prefer to serve it cold, empty it into a clean bowl and, if you like a skin to form on top, place it in the refrigerator uncovered, but if you’re like me and dislike the skin, then place a piece of plastic wrap over the pudding, pressing it on the surface of the pudding.

When you want to serve the pudding, give it a light whip with a spoon or spatula to lighten it and serve in small bowls. Top with unsweetened, freshly whipped cream.

You can keep the pudding covered in the refrigerator for 2 days.