Silky Dark Chocolate Pudding

Dessert at its simplest form if you ask me, is a good chocolate pudding. This chocolate pudding is quick and easy to make, rich and dark, kid-friendly and still always impresses my guests.

Listen, I won’t bring out the science textbook and what not but I just wanted to quickly mention the difference between pudding, pastry cream, custard, etc. so I’ll just tell you the same thing I wrote in my pastry cream recipe. 

Custard is any dish where milk or cream is thickened by eggs. Regardless of cornstarch or flour, if there are eggs present, it’s a custard. Pastry cream is a custard thickened by both eggs and starch, creme anglaise would be a custard (usually pourable) thickened (barely) by just eggs. They are all custards except pudding. 

Pudding is milk or cream thickened by a starch. Essentially the same thing without the presence of eggs. So chocolate pastry cream and chocolate pudding look and taste and feel very similar but one has eggs and one does not. I would say pastry cream is richer because of the egg yolks (and butter), whereas I feel like pudding is a little lighter in texture. 

How To Make Chocolate Pudding

She’s as easy as it gets guys. We’re just whisking all the ingredients together until they’re cooked and let it cool. 

Ingredients: 

• Sugar: I used granulated sugar but you can sub this for brown sugar too. You can adjust the amount slightly to your preference but I prefer to just change the type of chocolate you’re using if you want it sweeter. Of course, if you want it less sweet, you can lower the sugar too. 
• Cocoa Powder: I like dutch-processed but any cocoa powder works fine here. I do always recommend using a digital scale to measure dry ingredients though.
• Cornstarch: this is our thickening agent. Do not substitute this flour. You can sub it for arrowroot though. 
• Milk/Cream: You can use half milk and half heavy cream or just use half and half. Technically you can use all milk too but it may be a little less thick/rich and slightly more runny (ofc you can increase the cornstarch then too but I haven’t played with the amount). 
• Chocolate: I use 72% dark chocolate. I like the pound bars from Trader Joes but any chocolate works here. This is where I would adjust the sweetness, if you want it sweeter and less dark, use milk chocolate or sem-sweet here. I haven’t tried it, but honestly even white chocolate should work fine, it’ll just be much sweeter and lighter in color. You can use chocolate chips or a chopped chocolate bar. Just know that the quality of your chocolate will impact the flavor. 
• Salt: I LOVE salted chocolate so you know I’m adding in my tiny pinch of sea salt to the pudding but then also topping it with flakey salt. 

Step-By-Step Photos:

1. Whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch and salt in a pot. 
2. Slowly stream in the milk/cream, while whisking. Don’t just dump it all in because then you’ll have to work harder to whisk out the clumps of dry ingredients. 
3. Cook over medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until it starts to thicken. Whisk aggressively for another 30-60 seconds.
4. Remove from the heat, add the chocolate and whisk until it’s completely smooth and all the chocolate has melted. 
5. Pour into serving cups and let it cool a little. It does form a skin on top (the best part lol) so cover the surface with plastic wrap if you don’t like that.
6. Serve with fresh whipped cream or my favorite way, just pour a tiny bit of milk or cream on top. 

Serving & Storing Chocolate Pudding

You can serve it warm, serve it cold, serve it with cream or fruit, however you like. 

I let it cool a little at room temperature and then eat it or cover it and store it in the fridge until serving. I haven’t tried reheating it but I don’t see why that wouldn’t work. 

Thank you so much for being here, if you like my chocolate pudding, I would appreciate it if you left a 5-star rating or a review. 

As always, happy baking and have a blessed day!

Love, B