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Chocolate Pudding infused with Lavender
September 13, 2007 |
Munstead Lavender
We planted eight lavender bushes in two varieties - Munstead and Hidcote. Both are types of English lavender, perennial in our climate zone. (More about lavender varieties HERE)
Despite our unstinted devotion to chocolate, we don’t cook much with it. We prefer to eat it neat. There’s the chocolate cake (or two) that we prepare for special events. As for the chocolate recipes we prepare on a regular basis, there are just a couple.
There are the brownies which we prepare for potlucks, or picnics and can be served conveniently, just on a napkin.
Our absolute favourite, though, is the chocolate pudding. It packs a big chocolate flavour with very little work. This is another Gourmet Magazine classic. Their executive editor Sara Moulton featured it on her “Cooking Live” Show on Food Network five or six years ago. Since then it has been a regular at our home.
Oddly, we can’t find this recipe anywhere on the internet. We do have a chocolate-smeared printout in our recipe file which we no longer refer to, ‘cos we’ve made this dish so many times, we know the recipe by heart.
Edited to add: Susan found the link for the original recipe. Thanks, Susan.
Both, the brownies and the chocolate pudding, are very versatile. When paired with a new flavour, they transform into a whole new dish.
Every home has a select few ‘family favourites’ everyone loves, and associates with a special feeling that comes with being part of THAT family. The dish becomes a tradition, and when you cook and eat it together it feels like a group hug. In our home, nothing denotes group hug more than Homemade Pizza and Chocolate Pudding. For a little twist, we infused it with lavender from our garden. Lavender elevates chocolate to a whole new realm of sophistication.
What is your family’s favourite recipe? We’d like to hear about it.
If you are a chocoholic who doesn’t like/eat eggs, this recipe is perfect. The egg yolk in the recipe can be easily omitted.
This is the original recipe for plain chocolate pudding.
Variations:
For lavender chocolate pudding, bring the milk to a boil with a few sprigs of organic lavender, strain it, then use the milk to make chocolate pudding.
Add a dash of Grand Marnier and orange zest for Chocolate-Orange Pudding.
Or spice it up with candied and fresh ginger.
Chocolate Pudding
(adapted from this recipe from Gourmet Magazine)
(4 medium or six small portions)
1/2 cup sugar
**we use 1/4 cup
a pinch of salt
4 ounces fine-quality dark or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 and 1/3 cup milk (or soymilk)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 egg yolk (you can omit this - see note below)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (or transfat-free margarine)
1/4 tsp vanilla
Our additions
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp instant espresso or coffee powder
1 tbsp Cognac, Bailey’s Irish Cream or Tia Maria
For garnish:
Chocolate shavings/dried orange apricots/almonds or whipped cream if you prefer.
Notes:
1. We often make a vegan version of this with dark chocolate, soymilk, and transfat-free margarine. It’s equally good.
2. You can omit the egg yolk (it adds richness) and add an extra teaspoon of butter. We usually skip the yolk.
3. To make a richer pudding, you can replace the milk with Half and Half (half milk, half cream). We’ve made this with 1% milk and soymilk as well. Turns out fine.
4. We usually set the pudding in either six small espresso cups or 4 teacups. Keep them handy before the pudding starts to thicken. Or use one large bowl.
1. Keep four to six bowls or cups (depending on size) or one large bowl ready on a tray, along with a piece of plastic wrap large enough to cover all of them.
2. In a heavy saucepan on medium heat, add 1 cup of milk, the sugar, egg yolk, salt and chopped chocolate. Whisk it and let it heat up.
(To speed up the process, mix the cold milk and egg yolk well, heat it in the microwave and add it to the rest of the ingredients in the saucepan.)
3. Meanwhile, in a cup, add the cocoa powder, instant coffee and cornstarch. Add the remaining 1/3 cup milk, stir until the powders dissolve, then use a tea strainer to strain the mixture into the pan on the stove.
4. When it starts simmering, whisk it and add the liqueur. Keep an eye on it as it comes to a boil. Three or four minutes after it comes to a boil, it will thicken and become like the consistency of custard before it sets. When it is very smooth and thick, test it. It should coat the back of a spoon and not merge back when you create a partition with your finger. It should not thicken so much that you have have trouble stirring it. If that happens, add a dash more of milk.
5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the butter and vanilla, stirring until the butter melts. Pour the pudding into the bowls or cups. Top with a dried apricot/almonds or garnish of choice. (if using chocolate curls or whipped cream, wait until later). Put the plastic wrap on the rim of the bowls to cover them to prevent a skin from forming.
6. Refrigerate until firm. (This will take 30-45 minutes for individual dishes, longer for the large bowl.) Serve plain or topped with garnish of choice.
Where does our chocolate come from?
U.S. consumers eat 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate annually, representing nearly half of the world’s supply. More than 75% of the chocolate consumed in the United States comes from 600,000 cocoa farms in Ivory Coast. The vast majority of West African cocoa farmers live in abject poverty. They and their children live and work in slave-like conditions to bring us our daily dose of chocolate.
Learn More @ Project Hope and Fairness
Mathematics practice at 10 PM under a street lamp in Sikasso
(Picture from Project Hope and Fairness.)
Are you a fan of Nestle, Hersheys or M&Ms candy?
Every time you pick up a chocolate bar, you’re telling that chocolate company that there’s nothing wrong with the way they do business. In Africa, farmers operating cocoa farms are paid so little that they turn to slave labour - usually that of children. This is NOT child labour - they are not paid, they are forced to stay, locked up at night, beaten and killed for doing an unsatisfactory job or trying to escape. This is MODERN DAY SLAVERY in no uncertain terms, and though it is well known, nothing is being done. …
It would cost Nestle approximately US $0.002 per candy bar to switch to fair trade cocoa.
Read on …
Fair Trade Certification ensures that farmers are paid a fair price for their goods, those goods are not made using child labor, and environmental sustainability is maintained.
Sources for Fair Trade Chocolate.
Global Exchange Fair trade Online Store.
Local Fair Trade Food Resources.
National Retailers who carry Fair Trade products.
Chocolate, chocolate-pudding, cocoa-farmers, Coffee, Cooking-Live, dairy, Dairy/Cheese, fair-trade, Food-Network, Gourmet-Magazine, Ivory-Coast, Lavender, lifestyle, munstead-lavender, Project-hope-and-fairness, Sara-Moulton, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes
Delicious!! I made this without the egg and the liquor and topped with toasted coconut..definitely a big bang with a small serve. We are not really chocoholics, but this was SO satisfying! Thanks.
I’ve made this from your recipe several times; its perfect. Today, we are going to try the lavender version. Thank you from the bottom of my chocoholic heart.
[...] made this lovely pudding (long awaited recipe) for my brother’s [...]
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Chocolate and lavender together - wow, two of my most favorite things in one! It is terrific! Thanks.
PS - the photography is beautiful.
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