Mrs. Griffin's Chocolate Pudding

Remember that chocolate pudding your mother used to make? Yeah, this is it, but better, especially if your mother (like mine) made chocolate pudding from a box. Despite being raised on instant pudding, it is still my weak spot. Even when I swear I'm not getting dessert in a restaurant, if any type of pudding is on the menu, my resolve disappears. It is the ultimate comfort food.

This vintage recipe, from a Texas collection I recently purchased, uses not only milk, but also eggs and butter to enrich the pudding. Mrs. Griffin's children were mighty lucky to have this as an after-school snack. It's smooth and delicious. It is pretty easy to prepare (even though I screwed it up the first time -- details below.)

To do it right, combine the dry ingredients -- flour, sugar and cocoa -- in a saucepan.

Blend them together first (I didn't) and add the milk.

Add in the tempered egg mixture (instructions below), cook until thick and then add in the butter.

If you fail to temper the eggs as I did on my first try, you can still save the pudding by putting it through a sieve.  Those solid bits below are scrambled eggs -- something you definitely don't want in chocolate pudding!

My first attempt, and the subsequent "save the pudding" attempt, albeit successful,left quite a mess.

Production notes: Because the recipe is so vague, and to save you the fate I faced the first time I made it, I've written out more detailed instructions.

Mrs. Griffin's Chocolate Pudding

1 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. cocoa powder
2 c. whole milk
4 Tbs. butter
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla

In a two-quart saucepan, combine sugar, flour and cocoa.  Add 1 1/2 cups milk and cook until slightly thickened, stirring almost continuously.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and add 1/2 cup milk.
When the cooked mixture has thickened, slowly add it to the egg mixture, whisking all the while. (This is tempering, i.e., bringing the eggs to temperature, so as not to have scrambled eggs in your pudding.)
Pour this back into the saucepan and cook until a bit thicker.
Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.
Pour through a sieve (to ensure there are no lumps) and into a bowl, ramekins or whatever and place in the refrigerator for at least four hours. If you don't want a skin on your pudding, place plastic wrap directly on the surface.
Serve plain or with a dollop of whipped cream. And enjoy a taste of your childhood.

Easter Chocolate Pudding

Here's a five-minute Easter dessert sure to please children and adults.  This old-fashioned chocolate pudding can literally be put together in minutes with everyday ingredients -- milk, chocolate, sugar, salt, butter, cornstarch and salt.

This is a godsend for those pressed for time, like me.  At our house, we're celebrating both Passover and Easter tomorrow (the DD calls it Peaster), so between the brisket, the chicken soup and ham, I was looking for a really easy dessert.

Chop one square (one ounce) of unsweetened chocolate.  Melt it in 1/2 cup of milk.

Heat the remaining milk in a two-quart saucepan and add the melted chocolate mixture.  Next, add the dry ingredients (which you've sifted together).  Cook until thick -- it took less than five minutes.

Pour into small custard cups.  The recipe says five, but I filled just four.  I guess in the 1940s, when this recipe card was written, portion sizes (and the average American weight) were much smaller (and lower) than they are today.  Refrigerate until cold.

Now, the fun begins.  Form nests using sweetened coconut (like Baker's) and fill each with three jelly beans. I used the Jelly Belly brand, but any will do.

This recipe card is from one of the very first boxes I purchased in Akron.  I always avoided this recipe, since it was thickened only with cornstarch and lacked eggs, which add richness.  If you want to really guild the lily, you can use this richer pudding recipe, though this simpler one is quite nice, and easier on the waistline.

Chocolate Flake Pudding

How's that New Year's resolution diet coming along?  Hard to believe but in years past in America, calories were highly prized.*  (They still are in many parts of the world, but that's another sad story entirely.)

Chocolate Flake Pudding -- the flake is actually corn flakes -- is breakfast and dessert rolled into one, and whose intent must have been to pile on the calories. I found the recipe in a composition book, filled with carefully handwritten notes (and plenty of recipes) from a 1935 cooking school class.

This pudding is the perfect food to feed a child who needs to gain weight.  It has relatively little sugar, and lots of milk, eggs and cornflakes.  The DH and I found it mighty addictive.  The texture is unusual, but not in a bad way, and the flavor is quite nice.

So, if you feel like taking the plunge, photos and directions follow.
It starts like traditional pudding, with milk, sugar and cocoa powder.

Then, comes the corn flakes.

Add two beaten eggs.

Pour the pudding into a buttered casserole dish and bake at 350 for about 35 minutes.

When it's done, it will look like this. It's ok if it's a bit jiggly in the center.  It is pudding, after all.

*If you don't believe me that calories were king in some circles, here's a chart from a 1923 Minute Tapioca recipe book  boasting of the high calorie count of tapioca.

Chocolate Pudding, Under the Influence

I had a little medical procedure yesterday that involved a lot of anesthesia and the last words I recall the doctor saying as I was leaving the clinic were:  Don't use any kitchen appliances for the rest of the day.
But always one to defy authority, I turned on the stove to make old-fashioned chocolate pudding.

Chocolate pudding is one of those childhood favorites that is now appearing on upscale restaurant menus, a nod to retro after decades of dishing out its fancier cousins: pots de creme, chocolate mousse and the like.

I had my choice of two recipes; I chose the one with egg yolks, which add a lovely richness to almost everything.  (Of course, perhaps I should have listened to the doctor as I had to toss my first batch -- I didn't see the "or" between chocolate and cocoa on the recipe card, so I added them both.)

This recipe calls for cooking the mixture over direct heat and then in a double boiler.  If you don't have one, you can simply jerry rig one, as I did, using two saucepans.

This pudding is delicious -- and not too sweet at all.  In fact, there's just 1/2 cup of sugar in the entire recipe.  I used very high quality unsweetened chocolate (and not the cocoa powder, in the end).
The other wonderful thing about stove top desserts like puddings is that the entire kitchen doesn't get hot, like it does when the oven is on.  And that's a good thing when you want homemade dessert and it's August in New York City.