Winter Storm Chocolate Pudding

A recipe and musings

As is my custom, I’ll put the recipe up top and if you want to hear about how Winter Storm Fern and it’s aftermath is going, keep scrollin’ down. This was based on my husband asking me very nicely for pudding, as he does. I’m dieting, so can’t indulge, but if I make up a batch he’ll be a happy man for a week! My friend Arkay told me years ago now that she makes her puddings in the microwave, and I’ve just now gotten around to trying that method. To sum up: I’m sold. I’ll be making pudding this way from now on! It’s so easy, you don’t have to stand over the stove and stir, you don’t have to worry about the bottom burning if you aren’t stirring attentively. This took seven minutes of cook time, and just a few minutes of prep time.

I got the recipe out of the 1980 Microwave Baking and Desserts cookbook and modified it to suit my microwave, as I’ll note in the instructions. I also watched this charming video tutorial, but didn’t follow her recipe.

You’ll want a good-sized microwaveable bowl, glass is best, this will bubble up so at least an 8-cup bowl or mix-and-pour is necessary. Have two eggs at room temperature, ideally, but they will work from fridge-cold¹.

Whisk together in the bowl:
2/3 c sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate broken into pieces (or dark chocolate chips)

Then whisk in:

2 c whole milk, warmed by microwaving for 1 minute

Microwave the pudding mixture for three minutes, and stir. The chocolate will be melted but not homogenous yet.

Return to microwave for another 2 minutes² and while it is going, break the eggs into a bowl or mixing cup you measured the milk in, and beat them thoroughly. When you remove the pudding from the microwave, the chocolate will be seen upon stirring to be homogenous and emulsified. Take about a half cup of the hot pudding mixture and drizzle it into the eggs very slowly while stirring vigorously to temper the eggs. Then you can safely stir the tempered egg mixture into the pudding. Microwave for one more minute.

Allow to cool for a couple of moments, then stir in:

1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir in completely, and you can pour this into containers, chill it in the cooking bowl, or pour it into a blind-baked 9” pie crust. Entirely up to you! Chill and consume³. Or not. I’m not your mother (unless you’re one of my kids, in which case, it’s like thick, rich hot cocoa and you will burn the roof of your mouth).

The recipe I adapted this from.

Now! About that storm. I was and am quite concerned about the cold. The snow, not so much. We’re tucked safely in at home, with no need to leave the house for days, and indeed, with the cold weather we likely can’t get safely out of our driveway until Thursday (writing this on a Sunday). We didn’t lose power for long during the first night of icing, and thankfully did not get much ice accumulation, it got very cold and switched over to sleet. We have a few inches of sleet on the ground, frozen very hard, then a few inches of snow on top of that.

I am grateful for that snow cover. We are headed for record low temperatures in the next night, and the garden may survive, at least the roots on some things, with the insulating snow blanket on top of it. I covered as much as I could in the garden, so time will tell.

Under that cover, with incandescent Christmas lights, are a satsuma tree (next to the water tank) and two olives. One olive at the end had the cover blow off, so it will be my control to tell if the cover actually helped.

We have been cozy in the house, since the power was only out for an hour or two. We have been struggling to keep the garage above freezing, until this morning when I figured out how to fix and light the propane heater. Since there’s a bathroom, hot water heater, and several citrus trees in the garage, this was important. Thankfully, it is now above freezing out there, and I think I can keep it that way, we have enough propane.

So that is the theme of this storm. We prepared as well as we could. We even had plans for cooking should the power have gone out. I should have tested the propane heater sooner, but I know what the trouble was (clogged orifice) and how to fix it should it happen again. We have more than enough food and don’t need to go anywhere until the storm has passed and snow is melted off the roads. Thank goodness for self-employment and retirement! We are overfull with blessings and gratitude here.

1. For a richer pudding you can use 3-4 egg yolks, then use the whites for a meringue topping if making a pie with this pudding.

2. In my microwave, a lower wattage microwave may take longer, the book says 7-10 minutes stirring every three, but mine was thickened at five so keep a very close eye on it after that first three minute cook time.

3. My husband’s verdict is that I have to practice this regularly, and he’ll tell me if I’m getting it right. Also, will it work with Coconut Cream (it should!)?