Mad About Minis: Mini Chocolate Pudding

This dish was inspired by the Sea Salt Chocolate Budino from Pizza Antica. I tried this dessert last year, and it was excellent. I thought this was something I can easily make since I have been making a lot of mini desserts then. Well, maybe easy.

Unfortunately, I did not know what a budino was, this was my first budino. After a lot of research, I found that it was an Italian Chocolate Pudding. I found a lot of budino recipes: it is usually very rich using cream and whole milk. I wanted to scale it down and also making it a bit more healthy. However, Actually, even the pudding recipes were a bit difficult to scale down too. So, I have a dilemma.

Fortunately, after a long search, I found a home-alone chocolate pudding recipe hidden in the internet. It is in the community section of Cooking Light magazine. There are a bunch of recipes in there, but I choose the one from Cooking Light, primarily because I wanted to save my chocolate chips for cookies, and I wanted to use the Dutch Process Cocoa.

I also wanted to make a smaller version since 3/4 cup of milk seems to be a lot! Usually I just want something small and sweet to end the evening. So naturally, I halved the recipe.

Here’s what I have so far… I love the deep chocolate flavor on this dish. Let me know what you think.

Mad Gourmet’s Single-serve Chocolate Pudding

Based on Cooking Light’s Home Alone Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

• 3 tsp sugar
• 3 tsp Dutch Process Cocoa
• 1.5 tsp corn starch
• 6 Tbsp low fat milk
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Microwave milk for 30 seconds.
2. Combine dry ingredients.
3. Add warm milk and vanilla mixture.
4. Microwave at high for 30 seconds and stir well.
5. Microwave until thick, at most for another 30 seconds.
6. Add vanilla extract and stir.
7. Refrigerate until cold (at least about an hour)

Verdict

I love this recipe. To make it more decadent, I sometimes put it on top of crushed oreo cookies to make the double-dose chocolate effect.

I also have been known to double the recipe to share… or not. I'd just save the other portion for later..

I have also tried making this pudding using coconut milk. That gave it a tropical feel, especially if you add bananas or more coconut.

But then that would not be Italian…