Homemade chocolate pudding: milk, cocoa, potato starch and a piece of chocolate
Pudding from a saucepan, not a packet: milk thickened with potato starch, cocoa for colour and a piece of dark chocolate for flavour. A quarter of an hour, one pan, no artificial flavourings. The secret of smoothness is the slurry: starch and cocoa stirred first into cold milk, then poured in a thin stream into the hot. Warm it is dessert; cold with a skin it is the taste of childhood.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Slurry 5 min
- Cooking 10 min
Step by step
0 / 4 doneMake the slurry
Pour 100 ml of the cold milk into a small bowl. Add the potato starch, cocoa, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt. Whisk into a smooth, dark, lump-free slurry.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 3 tbsp potato starch · 2 tbsp cocoa powder · 3 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp vanilla sugar · 50 g dark chocolate · 10 g butter · 1 pinch salt
TipStarch and cocoa tipped straight into hot milk clump instantly, because the starch gelatinises on the outside of each lump before water reaches the inside. Cold milk spreads them evenly, and only then do you heat.
Starch and cocoa in cold milk, no lumpsHeat the milk with the chocolate
Pour the rest of the milk into a saucepan, add the broken chocolate and heat over medium heat, stirring, until the chocolate melts and the milk steams and bubbles finely at the edges. Don't bring it to a full boil or the milk will boil over.
Chocolate melted, milk just below the boilPour in the slurry and cook 2 minutes
Stir the slurry again (the starch settles) and pour it in a thin stream into the hot milk, whisking the whole time. Cook over low heat 2 minutes, stirring across the bottom, until the pudding thickens and turns glossy. Take off the heat and stir in the butter.
TipPotato starch gelatinises quickly: once the pudding bubbles and thickens it is done, and a short simmer simply sets it. Don't go beyond 3–4 minutes or whisk hard once it has thickened — long cooking and vigorous stirring make potato starch thin out again.
A thin stream, whisking, two minutesPour and serve
Pour into three glasses or bowls. Eat warm at once, sprinkled with chocolate shavings. For cold: if you like the skin, leave uncovered; if not, press cling film onto the surface of the pudding and chill 2 hours. Keeps 2 days in the fridge.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 3 tbsp potato starch · 2 tbsp cocoa powder · 3 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp vanilla sugar · 50 g dark chocolate · 10 g butter · 1 pinch salt
Film on the surface or a skin, as you like
Before you start
More chocolatey
100 g chocolate instead of 50 g and cut the cocoa to a spoon: a thicker, darker pudding, like a cream. Reduce the sugar by a spoon.
With fruit
A spoon of raspberries or sliced banana in the glass first, hot pudding on top: the fruit warms through and releases its juice.
Lumpy pudding
The slurry was under-mixed or poured too fast. The rescue: blend the hot pudding with a stick blender for 20 seconds, or push it through a sieve.
