Chocolate pudding. Yum.

How long has it been since you had homemade chocolate pudding? The kind where a little skin forms on top of the pudding that you can skim off and savor separately?
It’s probably been a long time and that’s a shame because chocolate pudding is one of the most comforting of comfort foods. It’s good for you too if you make it yourself, and is a good way of getting a little extra milk into children or invalids who might need the extra nutrition.

Pudding cups are a convenience and a quick snack to pop in a lunch box but the real thing is not only tastier, it’s a lot healthier. Homemade pudding is made from just a few ingredients—milk, sugar, cornstarch and flavorings. That’s all. Commercial mixes and prepared puddings—especially the ones that don’t need refrigeration—are full of chemicals and preservatives and things you really don’t want to ingest on a regular basis.

Even puddings that shout “fat free” or “sugar free” on their labels often have undesirable ingredients when you read the fine print. And beware of products that claim to be especially healthy. There’s one popular brand of soy-based pudding that is shockingly high in fat.

If you’re going to buy commercial pudding, read labels and go with brands like Kozy Shack that have minimal additives and preservatives. But really, you owe it to yourself to make chocolate pudding from scratch every once in awhile.

Chocolate pudding isn’t hard to make—only a little more complex than whipping up a cup of cocoa—and it can be served warm, so making a batch can be a spontaneous activity for a rainy or snowy afternoon.

Easy Chocolate Pudding

3 cups milk (nonfat is fine)
3 squares unsweetened baker’s chocolate
½ cup granulated (white) sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. salt

Pour 2 2/3 cups of the milk into a medium saucepan and add the chocolate. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the milk is scalded and the chocolate melts. Remove from heat.

Scalded Milk is milk that’s been heated almost to boiling. You can burn milk, so keep an eye on the pan.

Mix the sugar, salt and cornstarch, then add to the remaining, uncooked, 1/3 cup of milk.

Add this mixture to the scalded chocolate/milk mixture and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. The pudding will get thick and smooth but cook for another 5 minutes to get rid of any raw cornstarch taste.

Remove from heat and cool for another 5 minutes before adding the vanilla extract. The pudding can be served immediately, or refrigerated. If you don’t want that delicious “skin” to form on top of the pudding, cover the surface with a layer of plastic wrap.

Serves 6