This week's recipe was Chocolate Pudding, chosen by Melissa of It's Melissa's Kitchen. You can find the recipe on her blog, on page 383 of "Baking: From My Home to Yours," by Dorie Greenspan, or on Dorie's blog.
I was planning to make this on Tuesday night (last minute, I know), but we had such a wonderful dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, "La Mestiza" in Madison, Wisconsin, that I was too full to even want to think about cooking!
So, Wednesday night I set out to make pudding. The food processor was already dirty from making hummus for dinner, so I used our hand blender and a stainless-steel Ikea container (both wonderful second-hand store purchases from my sweet husband). I made half the recipe, using Green and Black cocoa powder and Valrhona Guanaja 70% chocolate. Yeah, I admit it, we're chocolate lovers.
I had a moment of panic when my custard thickened up very quickly and got a bit lumpy. I hadn't turned the heat down enough. Duh. But a good beating with the hand blender took care of those little lumps! Yay! (I did get a lot of bubbles, but they mostly popped after a brief rest and a bit of a stir-down.)
While I was rummaging in the china cabinet for our ramekins, I spotted the antique hand-painted German hot chocolate set we inherited from Jim's Great-Aunt Vi. Hey, what great containers for chocolate pudding! Half a recipe was enough for 4 containers and a little bit left over.
After chilling for 2 hours (yes, the book says 4, but we couldn't wait any longer), we had them with whipped cream and black raspberries. Wonderful! Although my husband did say, "It could be more chocolate-y." What can I say, he's a chocolate "extremist!"
A great way to celebrate the release of "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" by Joss Whedon. What? You haven't heard of it? Guess you're not a fan of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel," and "Firefly." But if you are, head on over and take a look. Or read what the LA Times has to say.
