Jul 6, 2010

Recipe: Double Batch Pudding

The is the last recipe from my emergency cooking project a few weeks ago, when I tried to use up an entire gallon of milk in one afternoon. I could have sworn I had a Martha Stewart chocolate pudding recipe saved to try sometime, but I. Could. Not. Find. It. So I turned to Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everythingfor a basic recipe and doubled the ingredients (for the most part). Then I divided the pudding in half and made one batch of chocolate pudding and one batch of banana pudding. It actually turned into a day of using up not just milk, but other ingredients, because the bananas were over-ripe. (I also made rice pudding using leftover rice.)

Double Batch Pudding - adapted from How To Cook Everything
Makes about 12 servings total

1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 eggs
5 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter, softened
3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3 ounces of fair trade or other similarly sourced bittersweet chocolate, melted*
3 ripe bananas, chopped

1. In a large saucepan, combine the sugar,cornstarch and salt. In a medium bowl, mix together the eggs and milk. Pour the milk mixture over the sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat until thickened, about 30 to 40 minutes, stirring frequently at the beginning and constantly after about 20 minutes. There will be lumps of cornstarch in the beginning but they will magically smooth out if you keep whisking.

2. Remove pan from heat. Stir in the butter and vanilla extract until the butter has melted and thoroughly incorporated.

3. Pour half of the pudding into a medium bowl. Add the melted chocolate to the bowl and stir until the chocolate is thoroughly incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap, letting the film rest on the surface of the pudding if you don’t want a skin to form. Refrigerate until cold.

4. Add the chopped bananas to the pudding that’s still in the saucepan. Stir well to distribute the bananas. Pour the pudding into an 8x8 baking dish and cover with plastic wrap, letting the film rest on the surface of the pudding if you don’t want a skin to form. Refrigerate until cold.

Note: If you want vanilla pudding, stop after you add the butter and vanilla extract. Transfer the pudding to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, letting the film rest on the surface of the pudding if you don’t want a skin to form. Refrigerate until cold.

*The chocolate doesn’t have to be fair trade, but read this Baby Toolkit post to find out why it should be. I buy bars of fair trade chocolate at Trader Joe’s almost every week. I also won some cooperatively produced Kallari chocolate bars from Leslie Loves Veggies that were fabulous.

1 comment:

Tina said...

And if you can't eat all of that pudding in a short time (but maybe you can), freeze some in popsicle molds or small cups with sticks, and they make a great snack for the hot weather!