If the only thing you've ever had is the chocolate
pudding that comes in a little box, I have something for you. Let me show you how to
make a homemade chocolate pudding. It is super, super easy, and the taste is unbelievable.
We're going to get started. Over on the stove, I've got 2 cups of milk
and ½ cup of cream, and it's just coming up to barely a boil. In the meantime, up here,
I'm going to start the base. I've got ¾ cups of sugar, 1/3 cup of cocoa powder. If you
want to go ahead and use the Dutch unprocessed, that's fine. This is plain old Hershey's.
I've got 3 tablespoons of cornstarch. You'll see this sold sometimes as cornflower. I have
the big yellow container. We're going to start whisking this together. If you're careful
at this point, if you want to at this point, you can sift your ingredients; it helps to
make sure that there is no lumps in the cocoa power. If there's no lumps now, there'll be
less chance of having lumps later. I've got pinch of salt. Yes, even in baked goods; it
helps everything taste more like itself. We've got ½ cup of milk. I like to use whole
milk. I've used every kind of milk there is, from skim milk, 1%, and 2%, but I think the
best result, the richest flavor and taste is from whole milk. You can certainly adapt
it if you want to. You're not going to get the depth of flavor. I feel I don't have this
too often, and go ahead and have the real thing. At this point, all we're doing is whisking
everybody together, and we're going to have this nice paste. Next step: I have 4 egg yolks that I've separated
out. I shop in one of those giant wholesale clubs. I literally buy boxes of 15 dozen eggs
at a time. I have a lot of kids and I do a lot of egg white omelets in the morning, so
I have a lot of extra egg yolks. I like to make custards because I use up lots and lots
of egg yolks. It also brings the price down of an egg to just over $0.10, which is really,
really good for a high-quality protein. We're whisking these in one at a time. Last one.
I broke the last one. If you want to, you can go ahead and find very high-end chocolate
and cocoa power, and it really does make a difference in the finished product. It takes
a very homemade, simple, everyday, delicious thing and it elevates it to an entirely new
level. In this case, I'm using the easy stuff I already have in my cupboard. We're going to put this away. I'm waiting
on the milk and the cream to come up to a boil. Then I'll be back to show you how to
finish off and put it altogether. I said I was going to show you how to finish it up.
I missed a step. Here's the interim step: Can you see how foamy the milk gets? You want
it to come just under a boil. Don't let it boil. It's not the end of the world, but it
will absolutely foam up and boil over, and you'll have a huge mess if you do. This is our little pasty, yummy stuff we made.
We got fondue. We're going to slowly drizzle our hot milk and cream in here. You want to
go slow. You want to bring the temperature of the chocolate mixture up slowly so you
don't get scrambled eggs and you don't have nasty little coagulated bits of protein in
your mixture. That's not very delicious. Once you've gotten most of it in here, just go
ahead and get the rest. Somewhere, I realized when I was doing my notes from the recipe
that I pulled up I don't know how many years ago, it had very much specified to have an
absolutely clean sauce pan. Back out a little way, critters. I've got children in here.
When you do this next step, I don't worry about it; most of the time, I don't even clean
it up. It's going right back in. We're going to put this back on the stove. We're going
to go medium-low, and we're going to cook it until it gets really thick. Then I'll be
back to show you how to finish it up. You ready? What you end up with . . . and
it'll be bubbling like lava. See how nice and thick that is? That's what you're looking
for. We're going to do the last thing. You ready? Plain old chocolate chips, ½ cup,
couple of teaspoons of vanilla, and a couple of tablespoons of butter. Let's see if we
can get it all out of there. Yeah, Boonie, give me just a minute. Just a minute; we're
doing a show. That's Boon, he's 7. We whisk it all together. All the chocolate will melt,
the butter will melt. You see how pretty and glossy that gets? If you want to at this stage,
you can strain it, and that will make sure that it's absolutely silky. Most of mine is
going to be is going to be eaten by a bunch of teenage boys, so we're not going to worry
about it. My youngest is something of a clown. There he goes. If you want to, you can strain it before you
put it into the cups. Mine's going to be eaten by a bunch of teenagers, so I'm not really
going to worry too much about finesse. However if you want to really dress this up, you add
a little whipped cream. Make it real whipped cream, please. You can serve it in wine glasses
or parfait cups. At this stage, if you want to make sure that it maintains this nice and
silky look at the top where it stays glossy, put plastic wrap on it and press it right
down onto the surface before you refrigerate it. That will keep a film from forming at
the top. Again, I don't really care at this point. My boys, doesn't matter at all. One
final thing you can do, hold on just a second. Since we're in the middle of summer and everything
is better chilled right now, I have these cute little popsicle . . . let's see if I
can do this without making a huge mess. Quite possibly, but I'm only going to fill one on
camera because it's going to be a close call. You remember Bill Cosby, if you were a kid
in the '80s? I remember. These are absolutely delicious. All you have to do is pop the top
back on it, throw it in the freezer. Usually doesn't take but about 3 hours before it's
nice and solid, and you have perfect little chocolate pudding pops. That's it; super-simple,
very easy, and absolutely delicious. This is nothing at all like what you get in the
boxed stuff. Give it a try, because it comes together just like that.