I have always loved chocolate pudding. When I was a kid I would just beg my mom in the grocery store to buy the little individual SnackPack puddings in the refrigerated section to put in my backpack for school... Please! Please! Pleaaaaaaaeeeeaase? My mom was not one to give in to pleading, and religiously denied all SnackPack requests. But the two of us did make chocolate pudding from the little Jell-O packs together - baking of any sort, and particularly the chocolate sort, was always an encouraged activity. (The extent to which I love a certain type of food can be determined by whether I will eat said type of food in it's most processed form.... Although it makes me more than slightly ashamed to say so - I STILL love Jell-O chocolate pudding.) When I went to visit my grandparents' house in New Jersey we would make chocolate pudding from scratch, although my grandmother called it custard. Milk, cream, eggs, chocolate. It was like an alchemy lab how it all managed to come together in a silky cold chocolaty dream at the end. As a teenager and an adult I continued to make pudding with eggs. Now pudding made with eggs can be tricky. It can end badly. The pudding recipe I present to you now will not end up badly. There are NO EGGS! Can you imagine? Just cornstarch to thicken your pudding up to beautiful silky bliss. And even better then no eggs, there is NO MILK! Or at least, no cows milk. I am not dairy-intolerant, but I have made this same pudding recipe both with milk and cream and with oatmilk and I can honestly say I much prefer the version made with oatmilk. It tastes cleaner, brighter and more chocolaty. Now go on and make a batch. Pleaaaaase? You won't regret it.
Oatmilk Chocolate Pudding
I found this recipe via the NYTimes; they had adapted Alice Medrich's cow-milk and cream based one by merely substituting oatmilk for the milk and cream, and omitting the rum (bad omission, that.)
If you are using chocolate with a cocoa content of 70% or higher then use just 3 ounces, not 4 ounces. And remember the chocolate you use will determine the taste of the pudding, so make sure you use one you love. I made this most recently with Tollhouse Chocolate Chips.... a low-brow chocolate it may be, but a pudding divine it did make.
1/3 cup (65 grams) sugar
1/3 cup (30 grams) natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not dutch-processed)
2 tablespoons conrstarch
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups (480 ml) good quality oatmilk (I prefer Oatly brand)
4 ounces (115 grams) semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped, or chips (see note above)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp rum (optional)
Have 8 small ramekins, or one large cereal bowl ready on the counter.
Place the sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch and salt in a large saucepan and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add 1/4 cup of the oatmilk slowly and whisk until you have a smooth chocolate paste. Then slowly whisk in the remainder of the oatmilk.
Put the pan on the burner and turn the heat to medium and STIR CONSTANTLY with a wooden spoon - scraping the bottoms and sides of the pan with your spoon - until the pudding is thickened, bubbly at the edges, and coats the back of the spoon, which should take about 5-7 minutes. Turn heat off and stir in the chopped chocolate vigorously, until all pieces or chips are melted and pudding is smooth. Remove pan from stovetop and pour into ramekins or bowl. Refrigerate until ready to eat. If you don't like skins on your pudding then press plastic wrap firmly to the top of each pudding before putting in the frig. I am on Alice's team for this one - I like the skin. But to each her chocolatey own. Top with whipped cream and raspberries to make this a fancy dessert. (No one but you need know this humble dessert is this easy to make!)
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