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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Writing Pad Recipe - Easy, Magical Chocolate Pudding

by Andrea Ruth and Amy Robinson

We are very excited to welcome Andrea Ruth as the new Writing Pad Executive Chef! Before we tell you about her impressive background,Writing Pad would like to thank Adel Aschenbrener for the past five years of wonderful gourmet goodness and shared recipes. We will miss her very much.  We wish her and her husband all the luck and happiness in the world, especially with their upcoming adventure as parents!

I know, you are sad to see Adel go, but have no fear!  Andrea is here--and her food is also amazing!  Andrea is a graduate of the professional program at the New School of Cooking, and a lifelong cook, foodie and gourmet. After completing culinary school,  Andrea went straight to work interning at Suzanne Goin’s A.O.C. Andrea then started Omnibus Delecto (Everything’s Delicious), a gourmet sandwich and catering company.  She has many culinary talents ranging from being the Salad Queen of The Universe (she will change the way you view salad forever), to making pecan prailine baked french toast, buttermilk raspberry cakes, truffled mac and cheese, and the best banana puddings you have ever tasted!  Andrea has also been a professional actor, comic, teacher, chef and (occasional) clown.

You can sample Andrea's tasty treats at upcoming Writing Pad classes.  Call 323-333-2954 or email marilyn@writingpad.com to sign up before all the classes are full!

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Andrea says:
"Chocolate Pudding! Who doesn’t love it? No one! Facists maybe, but no one else doesn’t love Chocolate Pudding. You open a little baggie and mix some stinky powder with milk and voila you have…pudding?  Well, sort of. But  not the pudding that dreams are made of.  And I do not understand it. No offense to Bill Cosby here, but you can make chocolate pudding from scratch in almost the same time it takes to whip up that crappy stuff. And the difference is immeasurable. There is an instant in the stirring of pudding when it suddenly goes from chocolate milky stuff to chocolate silk. When this magic moment occurs, you’ll be so glad you took that extra ten minutes (or less!)"

Easy Natural Delicious Low-Calorie (not really) Magical Chocolate Pudding

3 cups milk (whole, 2%,1% but not skim)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar (or a little less if you don’t like it too sweet)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 oz unsweetened chocolate chopped fine
OR
7-8 squares of Trader Joes 72% pound plus bar of chocolate chopped fine
pinch of salt

Bring 2 1/2 cups of milk to scalding (this is just below boiling, one or two bubbles). Mix the cornstarch, sugar, and salt together in a bowl with the rest of the milk and stir to dissolve the solids a bit.  Add the chopped chocolate to the hot milk and whisk to combine. Add the rest of the milk mixture and whisk to combine. Whisk constantly until it begins to thicken. Then keep whisking for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Pour into individual cups, or a big shallow dish and refrigerate until cold.  But taste often while hot because hot homemade pudding is the bomb. In England hot custards are often spooned on top of warm cakes. I’m just sayin’.

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