A Mother's Day Treat - Chocolate Pudding

Here's a super easy recipe that kids and dads can make as a treat on Mother's Day (or any other day for that matter). The first time I had chocolate pudding I loved it because it tasted like cool, melted chocolate.... so very luscious, silky and tasty... This recipe is an eggless one and comes together with simple ingredients... it's also comparitively lighter than most other desserts.. no eggs, cream, butter etc.

I followed this recipe but with some slight modifications. I started off with the double boiler method but lost patience after a while and switched to the stove top method... it still turned out good. Another important note is to not forget the salt (especially for chocolate based desserts) since it brings out their sweetness & flavour.

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE PUDDING


Ingredients:
Whole milk - 3 cups
Sugar - half cup
Cornstarch - 1/4 cup
Semi-sweet chocolate - 3/4 cup
Salt -1/8 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1/4 tsp

Method:
1) Dissolve the cornstarch completely in 1/4 cup cold milk and keep aside.

2) Heat the remaining milk in the microwave for about 3 to 4 minutes.


3) Set up a double boiler - I used 2 saucepans that sit on top of each other. To the lower pan, add water until it's about quarter of the pan, bring to a boil and keep the flame on medium. To the top pan, add the hot milk, the dissolved cornstarch, sugar & salt & continue stirring with a whisk.

4) Continue to cook this until it is thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon - this can take about 20 minutes using this method but ensure that the mixture does not get burnt.

5) Like I mentioned earlier, I lost my patience so after about 10 minutes or so, I removed the top sauce pan to the direct flame (on low) and it started to thicken in a few minutes.

6) Add the chocolate chips at this stage and continue whisking until the mixture turns dark brown and thickens. Immediately remove from the stove and stir in the vanilla extract.

7) Strain (to remove lumps, if any) & pour into invidual serving dishes and once cooled a bit, refrigerate for an hour or two until chilled.

Put your feet up, dig in & be transported to a blissful state....


Here's another picture after several tasty spoons... :)

Happy Mother's Day! My daughter wrote 2 poems for me and gave me a handpainted flower pot with a pretty red flowered plant :)