Is that a picture of:
- chocolate pot de creme?
- chocolate mousse?
- chocolate pudding?
If you answered 1 or 2, well… you must not know ’bout me, because there’s no way I’m making something that complicated on a weeknight.
It is, however, probably the best chocolate pudding I’ve ever had.
Personally, I’m not really the dessert type. You know how it is; you’re either a dessert person, or you aren’t. My husband and kid, though, definitely are. So, when I found myself with little extra time between dinner and bedtime, I shooed them from the kitchen and surprised them with this:
Easy Enough for a Weeknight Chocolate Pudding
- 1 cup sugar
- .5 cup cocoa
- .25 cup all-purpose flour
- pinch of salt
- one 12 oz. can evaporated milk
- 1.25 cups water
- optional: one tablespoon vanilla (or other) extract
In a saucepan, combine dry ingredients. Add milk and water; stir or blend until smooth. (I used a stick blender.) Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil.
Cook until desired pudding-like consistency, anywhere from 1-5 minutes. Remove from heat. Taste. If you feel it’s a a little lacking, stir in extract. Cool to room temperature, stirring (or blending) several times.
Eat while still warm and/or refrigerate uncovered (if you are a fan of pudding skin) or lay a piece of plastic wrap or parchment on the surface (if you are no fun at all).
Granted, the recipe I use is from my Better Homes and Gardens red-and-white checked cookbook, which I don’t have on hand, but I don’t remember pot de creme being much more complicated than that. Melting chocolate rather than using cocoa powder, I guess. I haven’t made them for a while, but they’re in my “easier than you’d think” category.
Yum! Pudding is one of those things I like but forget to make. And this uses evaporated milk which is one of those things I keep buying and never using.
Cheryl: I really just like saying pot de creme, but now I’m gonna have to look up how you actually make it.
Rachel: At the risk of sounding crazy, I love evaporated milk. I drink it in my coffee, so I always have an open can in my fridge. Basically, I use it in anything that calls for a small amount of milk or cream — mac & cheese, creamy soups, etc.
I really need to start using it more. I think I just forget about it but I have like 6 cans in cabinet!
Well I voted for pot de creme because it looks just like the luscious one I ate recently- but your recipe looks so good and easy, so I hope to try it out this week.
Okay, so, a cursory epicurious search reveals that my recipe is somewhat. . .simplified. It looks like just thick, rich pudding; no straining or even baking the custard. Nonetheless, for the record, here is the recipe (complete with their commentary) from the cookbook my Nana gave me for Christmas more than 15 years ago when I had my first apartment with a kitchen in college, and which is frankly still my starting point for a lot of standards so long as the ingredients list doesn’t include “One can condensed cream of mushroom soup” or “one envelope onion soup mix.”
Chocolate Pots de Creme
Savor pot de creme (poh-duh-KREM), a very rich dessert, in small portions.
1 c light cream
1 4-oz package German sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons sugar
3 beaten egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Whipped cream (optional)
In a heavy small saucepan combine light cream, chocolate, and sugar. Cook and stir over medium heat about 10 minutes or until mixture comes to a full boil and thickens. Gradually stir about half of the hot mixture into beaten egg yolks,; return yolk mixture to saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Pour into 4 or 6 pot de creme cups or small dessert dishes. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours. Serve with whipped cream, if desired. Makes 4 or 6 servings.