We are going to start with dessert because I usually like to eat dessert first, but in this case we got to do a little prep before we eat it. These are some pretzels. I am just going to like, you know, crinkle down onto a baking pan. This is going to go on top of our chocolate pudding. I really love the sweet and saltiness of it. So we just -- like a handful or two of pretzels right on your baking sheet.
I am going to take some butter, straight from our stove top, use microwave if you want, and then we are going to add a little bit of sugar. So there you go. The salt is already on the pretzels, adding the sugar completes our flavor, a salt and sugar, the butter just helps it all stick to it.
Alright so we are going to put this in an oven for about ten minutes. It could be a little bit less, 400 degrees is as really tricky so make sure you keep your eye on it because all we want to do is put the butter and the sugar to coat the pretzels and get crispy, not burned. Alright, so ten minutes in the oven, not eleven and maybe not even ten. So, keep your eye on it.
Usually when you make a pudding, lots of eggs, but I am going to show you a fast and simple way to do your pudding without the egg. So it is kind of like without the guilt too, because you know what the yolks are all about. The yolks are all about holding everything together and making things creamy, but we are going to give you a couple of shortcuts like I told you.
Alright, so first things first; I am going to just start our chocolate pudding with some cocoa powder. I don't know about you, but when I go to choose pudding flavors, chocolates first, I love chocolate. It just makes me feel like a kid, doesn't it, chocolate pudding. I use to always like it in the little container, growing up, in my lunch box so give yourself a treat and do it homemade from scratch.
Alright, so we have got a half a cup of our cocoa powder and then I am going to put in a half a cup of sugar as well. Now this is like baking. This is actually really baking, but we are just doing it on a stove top. So what you want to do is just make sure you measure properly instead of eyeballing. So, half a cup of sugar to go along with our half a cup of cocoa powder, alright, cover that up and then what I am going to add to it is kind of like our egg substitute.
Now, there is going to be an egg in this later on, but not as much as a normal pudding which would be like four or five egg yolks which just makes you feel like really packing on the pounds. So what we are going to do is we are going to add the corn starch. Now, the cool thing about corn starch, it comes from the inside of the cornel of the corn, it is the white part, it is starch part. It is what makes gravies thick, you know what I mean. It is what makes pudding thick if you use it that way.
All you have to do is add to something cold, turn up the heat, let it boil for a minute, thickness starts happening and I really love it. Always stayed in the cabinet growing up, we used to play with it with a little bit of water, just go online and figure out how to play with corn starch. I am sure if you do a little search you will have a loads and loads of fun with your kids. Alright so two tablespoons of corn starch and then I am going to add two cups of milk.
Now see how simple this is, probably everything is in your pantry. Cocoa powder is there from that one time you wanted to make some home made hot coco. Corn starch, hopefully there, little milk, little sugar and this is really simple. Alright, to get my whisk out. What I am going to do is I am going to put this milk in the center of my sauce pan. Now I am going to turn the heat on and this is really tricky. Don't do everything fast, it is all a slow process. We do not want to create lumps where they shouldn't be.
Now I have already put the corn starch, remember I said you go to start with the cold, that's why the smoke is going in cold. It is going to help the corn starch not to lump up on us. But let me tell you once everything gets mixed together, this has to boil just for a few minutes, but don't under boil it because corn starch is all about a chemical reaction, it really has to make things thick. So you will start to notice it's tightening up on you and the pudding is nice and thick, corn starch just kind of helped it get ready.
What I am going to do right now is temper the egg before I put it into the pudding. Now the egg is going to help in a lot of ways. It's going to help with the creaming, it's going to help with the thickness, it's going to help with the silky taste on your tongue, it's made really good.
So the whole idea of tempering is to have the cold attack the heat and so the heat attacking the cold. We don't want to scramble our egg. We just want to have it help our cooking, so put in there really quick mix it. I want you to feel like you have kind of got it up to temperature, that's when you can pour it into your chocolate pudding.
If you have ever had like a flan or any kind of other custard that had like a scrambled egg taste to it, of course some folly, I just didn't temper it right, no big deal, also eat it, it's all going in the same place. Alright so that's all mixed together. What I want to do is one final layer of chocolate because it is all about the chocolate. I want to do some semi sweet chocolate chips about a fourth of a cup and they will melt right in afterwards, stir those in really quick.
And this is a really simple and fast dessert. One hour, your friends come over you don't even think about it, next thing you know everyone is hungry for dessert. It is already done, it is ready. You can make like three or four and you have dessert all week for yourself. Alright, so I have got my ramekins all ready to go. I am going to pour them in here. Don't need to do anything, just pour them in and then I am going to put this in the fridge.
Now if you started thinking, oh! What would it taste like if I put the pretzels on now? Don't worry about it. They are going to get soggy, I have already tried that. I thought it would taste good too, but they are great at the end, you just sprinkle them right over the top, it is nice and crunchy.
Alright, so pudding is in. What I am going to do is I am going to put these in the refrigerator for about an hour, let them set. You can kind of tell, you can just go and give them a shake. You will know when they are setup for you.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services