It all started with an innocent thought. S and I were relaxing before dinner, just going over our respective days, when we realized we didnât have enough milk for tomorrowâs breakfast. S volunteered to run to the store, and on a whim I asked him to get extra milkâI felt like making pudding. What I meant, of course, was that I felt like opening a box of the Sugar Free Fat Free Cook ânâ Serve Jello powder that was lurking in the pantryâthe sugarfreefatfree part makes it a Core food for Weight Watchers. What S heard, however, was My Wife Wants to Cook Pudding from Scratch. His face lit up. And I thought, hell, why not just make it from scratchâhow hard could it be? Weâve got a package of Splenda in the pantry for just such an occasion. A quick perusal of my cookbooks turned up a promising recipe, in Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites, one of my Old Reliables. All we needed was the milk. âGet a gallon,â I called out as S pulled on his coat.
I am an idiot. A standard pudding recipe calls for two cups of milk. Normally we buy a quart. Why did I tell him to get a gallon? Is cooking math really that hard? I donât think so.
The corner store didnât have gallon containers, so S returned with two half-gallons. I decided to go for broke and double the recipe, blithely thinking that this would use up one of the two plastic jugs of milk. It wasnât until I was pouring away, watching the thin white liquid threaten to overflow my two-quart saucepan, that I realized something was wrong. Very wrong. I hadnât doubled the amount of milk called for; Iâd quadrupled it.
So what could I do? I pulled a large soup pot off the pot rack, transferred the milk, etc, into it, and added enough cocoa, Splenda, and cornstarch to match the amount of milk Iâd foolishly dumped in. This recipe calls for constant stirring, until the mixture reaches a boil and for another three minutes after that. It takes a loooong time for half a gallon of cold milk to boil. My arm was not happy. But it was worth it: the end result was a half-gallon of quite delicious chocolate pudding, much less sweet and more authentic-tasting than the packaged kind.
Way back in the beginning, when I was only doubling the recipe, I pulled out eight small glass bowls to make single servingsâmy favorite part of cooked pudding is the skin that forms, and the more surface area you can get, the more skin you get. But when I wound up quadrupling, I had to scramble to find another eight bowls. Nanaâs china to the rescue! It wasnât until Iâd arranged them on the counter, ready to pour in the hot pudding, that it occurred to me weâd have difficulty fitting all those little bowls into our well-stocked fridge.
Thinking fast, I pulled out my trusty soufflĂ© dish. It all fit, as you can see. Though I wouldnât exactly call this a single serving (that’s a teaspoon in the photo, to give you a sense of scale), and thereâs much less skin than I would likeâŠ
Weâll finish the pudding by the weekend, I guess.
Dark Chocolate Pudding
Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites
Serves four
3 T. cornstarch
3 T. Splenda (or sugar)
2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder [I used Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa]
2 cups 1% milk
1 t. pure vanilla extract
1 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped (optional)
In a saucepan, thoroughly combine the cornstarch, Splenda or sugar, and cocoa. Add the milk and stir until smooth. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until the pudding comes to a boil. Then lower the heat and gently simmer, stirring continuously, for 3 or 4 minutes. Stir in the vanilla and the chocolate, if using, and stir until the chocolate melts. Pour the hot pudding into a serving bowl or individual custard cups, and serve warm or chill for about two hours, until set.
mix in some mini-marshmallows & chopped toasted almonds…rocky road pudding. yum!
I just made this – it came out terrific. I love that you can use 1% milk. It is just as easy as using the box, and much more satisfying.
Hmmm…wonder what would happen if you used Stevia? Or the Stevia blend? I am allergic to NutraSweet (aspartame) but am ok with Splenda and Stevia – but prefer Stevia as it natural. (and if someone is diabetic Stevia is better)Just a thought….
Beverly I imagine Stevia would be just fine. Try a half-recipe and see how it goes! And if you do, please report back!
Yummy but needed salt.