Use the right ingredients when making chocolate pudding at home.
When you have a craving for chocolate pudding, there are plenty of ready-to-eat and box mixes that are available for instant, no fuss gratification. This does not, however, compare to the taste of pudding that is freshly made from scratch. Although it may seem like a lot of effort, with the right ingredients, chocolate pudding is a treat that the entire family can enjoy.
Chocolate
There are different types of chocolate that are suitable for this type of pudding: unsweetened cocoa powder, bittersweet, milk, white or dark chocolate or some combination of the five. What you use depends on exactly what type of pudding you are attempting to make. For example, a white chocolate pudding would require the addition of white chocolate only. Other pudding recipes, however, may call for more than one type and flavor, such as cocoa and bittersweet chocolate for example.
Milk and Eggs
All pudding recipes include some form of milk or heavy cream in their ingredients list. When using milk, whole and low-fat milk provide the most flavor, texture and body to the pudding. However, for a lower fat option, non-fat milk is acceptable, although the pudding may be thinner. Egg yolks or whole eggs are also found in some, but not all chocolate pudding recipes. They are added to increase the richness of the pudding, and they also work as a thickener. Prior to adding the eggs to hot liquid, it is best to temper -- or gently bring up their temperature -- by slowly adding heated milk to the eggs while you are whisking them.
Cornstarch
Cornstarch is a type of carbohydrate that is found in and made from corn kernels. It is a gluten-free, flavorless powder that is mixed with a small amount of water and added to help thicken the pudding as it heats and cooks. To thicken properly, the pudding most come to a complete boil after the cornstarch is added.
Sugar and Vanilla
Sugar is added to provide additional sweetness to the pudding. For people who are diabetic or who want to decrease the amount of sugar in their diets, a substitute such as sucralose is an alternative. In addition to adding sugar, you can also increase the flavor by stirring in either pure or synthetic vanilla extract after cooking the pudding, before setting it in the refrigerator to chill.
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