Midnight Chocolate Pudding

This is the most luxurious and smooth chocolate pudding I have ever tasted, and if you’re a chocolate fan, you should really give this one a try.

The recipe is adapted from the macaron master himself, Pierre Hermé. In his book, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé, he calls this a ‘Deep Chocolate Cream’ and is based on a crème anglaise recipe. It’s not your typical baked custard. It’s stirred over the heat and set once it’s cooled.

I came across this recipe while working at the Rideau Club. I was on a hunt for the perfect pot de crème. Often the ovens were jam packed with trays and trays of bacon for the breakfast crowd, or maple glazed salmon portions for the banquet at lunch. So it was always a good idea to be able to make a dessert without having to use an oven.

You can do so much with this recipe too. Serve it in tea cups like I did here, use it as a cake filling, or add some layers of graham cracker crumbs and homemade marshmallow fluff to create that “s’more in a mason jar” dessert that was oh-so-popular a while back!

Makes 8ish tea cups.

Ingredients:

• 290 g good quality dark chocolate (I used Callebaut 54% here)
• 1 2/3 cup whole milk
• 1 ½ cups 35% cream
• 5 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar

Procedure:

• Bring the milk and cream to a simmer.
• Whisk together egg yolks and sugar just before tempering in hot milk/cream.
• Transfer back to pot and stir over low-med heat. Stop as soon as you see a bubble, being careful not to over-heat.
• Strain mixture into a bowl that contains the chopped chocolate.
• Whisk until smooth.
• Portion.
• Chill overnight. Or at least until midnight!

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