Dark Dark Chocolate Puddings

Dress-up is my national past-time, I love dressing up. As soon as October hits my browser becomes filled with tabs dedicated to costume ideas for one of my favourite holidays. Halloween! ( wait, I think I just said I was a country)

Right now I am revelling in the spooky, I motherflippin’ love Halloween, I love scary books; Salem’s Lot is not easy bed time reading btw, I love dressing up, I can do a fantabulous smokey eye, I own a lot of black and did I mention I love Halloween?

That being said, I’m not a fan of the standard Halloween fare, the pumpkin flavoured everything (it’s not in season here for a start), ghost pops, eyeball pops, gravestone shaped things, the list goes on.So I went for a compromise, I think these look like little brains. Little brains on top of the most deliciously dark puddings. Have I mentioned the sauce is strawberry and vodka? If that’s not amazing I really don’t even know what life is!

Dark, Dark Chocolate Pudding, with Vodka Strawberry Sauce and Vanilla Cream
Adapted from Joy the Baker

Puddin’ you out of my mind.
473ml whole milk
113 gr tablespoons granulated sugar
1/3 cup dutch cocoa powder
118ml whole milk
4 teaspoons cornflour
¼  teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Pinch’s of salt all over the show

Cream Time
237ml heavy cream
2-½ tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla bean
pinch of salt

Get Saucey
A big handful of strawberries, chopped roughly (about a punnet)
3 shots of vodka
½ cup of water
½ teaspoon of pectin
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 additional shot of vodka

The Deal.
Place the first lot of milk in a medium saucepan with the sugar and cocoa powder, simmer but don’t boil. Stir intermittently.

In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining milk, cornflour, salt, egg yolks, and vanilla extract.  Drizzle about half of the steaming hot chocolate milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.  This will temper the eggs, making them a bit warm before they’re cooked over a flame.  Return all of the chocolate, milk, egg mixture back to the saucepan.  Heat over medium heat, whisking nearly constantly.  Make sure the get into the corners of the pan where the pudding might stick and overcook.

When pudding starts to boil, continue to whisk and boil for about 2 to 3 minutes.  Pudding will thicken.  Remove from heat and spoon into 4 ramekins or jars.  Cover with plastic wrap (on the surface of the pudding if you want to avoid pudding skin).  Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Sauce’d
Roughly chop the strawberries and place in a bowl, cover with the three shots of vodka. Cover and leave for 1 hour.
After the hour warm the ½ cup of water in a small saucepan and add the pectin when the water is warm. Whisk.
Add the sugar and then strawberry vodka mixture including excess liquid.
Stir and simmer on a low heat until mixture has thickened, about 20 minutes. Strain twice to remove seeds.
Add the additional shot of vodka and stir, and then refrigerate sauce until ready to serve.

Cream’d Life
For the whipped cream, whip together heavy cream, sugar, vanilla bean, and a pinch of salt.  Dollop over cold pudding and serve.

To serve, use an ice cream scoop to scoop cream onto the chilled pudding, then spoon the sauce over the cream.
Serves 4.

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