Chocolate pudding crops up a lot in North American conversations, literature, poetry… well maybe not poetry, but it is referred to a lot.
There are countless recipes that employ its use, but we don’t have chocolate pudding mix over here. I have blogged about it before – the one I made was a delicious but elaborate affair and wasn’t terribly quick to make. This version is very quick. A pukka super-quick chocolate pudding.

Tasty, chocolatey, quick and simple. By the way, it’s something between thick custard and blancmange. Spoons dip into it. Sometimes they do this when you’re not even looking. Sneaky.

Put 2 heaped tbsp cornflour, 3 tbsp cocoa and 1/3 cup caster sugar into a saucepan (it really is sweet, so feel free to reduce the sugar)

Whisk it together and slowly start adding the milk on a low heat.

Keep whisking as it heats

Until it thickens. It thickens significantly – you will know.

Once it has thickened, have a quick taste to make sure the flour taste has gone, then add 1 tbsp butter and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Whisk until it’s melted (a matter of moments)

Once melted, that’s it! Eat it hot if you like, or decant into small pots, or one big bowl, lay clingfilm directly on to the surface to avoid a skin forming (I left one uncovered as an experiment; the skin was unpleasantly tough) cool and then chill in the fridge to eat cold later.

Eat!

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Quick Chocolate Pudding

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3 tbsp cocoa
2 heaped tbsp cornflour
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 cups milk
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla

Mix the cocoa, sugar and cornflour in a small saucepan.
Slowly add the milk, stirring, on a low heat.
Keep stirring on heat until thickened.
Once thick, add butter and vanilla.
Pour into container and press clingfilm on the surface to avoid a skin forming. Eat hot or cool and then chill in the fridge.

Seems like a million years ago since I made these delectable truffles. Hours and hours I must have spent agonising over what to make for Alex’s teachers at school.

I changed my mind a thousand times.

Kept coming back to this recipe though – and I’m glad I did, because as I started making them, I remembered just how good they taste.

I might have to make some more. That’ll really give my new Wii Fit Plus something to whinge about. When you step on the platform it yelps. That’s emotional abuse, you know.

Anyway. On to the truffles! (and yes, I’m back!)

This is a tin of Caramel, aka dulce de leche, aka condensed milk that has already been cooked to caramel for you. Isn’t that convenient?
Even better, you only need half this tin, so the other half is there for you to eat from your finger until you are bilious. Fantastic.

Put the half of the contents into a small saucepan and heat until it’s melted, then stir in 100g dark (50, 60, 70% cocoa solids) until that’s all melted and smooth.

Take a dinner plate and cover it with clingfilm, then rub/spray some oil on it.

Pour/scrape the mix onto the plate and smooth it evenly with a spatula. Put it into the freezer for a couple of hours until it’s really firm, or just in the fridge, but be aware that you might have to interrupt your truffle-making to return it to the fridge to harden up again if you snub the freezer method.

Heat a 142ml tub of cream and pour it over a mix of 200g milk and 200g dark chocolate that has all been chopped. Go ahead and add a couple of tsp of vanilla extract too. Let it stand for a minute, then stir to melt.

If your kitchen, like mine, is cold enough that you have polar bear pets and a hole in the ice to go fishing in, then you might need to chuck the lot in the microwave and cautiously (30 second intervals) zap until it melts together.

Well done; you melted! Now let it chillax in the fridge until firm.

Here’s the caramel mix after its stint in the freezer. A pliable caramel frisbee. Good-oh.

Now, I don’t like running out of filling – or covering, for that matter – so at the beginning of the assembly process, I score the plate of filling and the bowl of ganache into quarters. That way, you can see how mean or generous you need to be with both components.

Don your serial killer gloves, sift some cocoa onto a shallow bowl and get a plate out to receive the finished truffles.

With your spooky hand, mould a heaped tsp of truffle mix so that you have a little depression to cradle the filling in.

Form a piece, roughly about the size of your thumbnail, of the caramel filling into a ball and place in the depression, then mould the truffle around it to encase it.

Place the truffle on the cocoa and roll to cover

then onto a plate to await some truffle friends

Here’s one sliced through so that you can see the filling. You don’t get a definite ‘filling’ feel when you’re eating it because the mouthfeel of the two textures is so similar – so similarly fabulous – but the middle does seem to melt in the mouth.

These are so good.

I made a batch of brownies too, but cut them into tiny squares – petit four size. I dredged them with icing sugar so that there was a definition between the two chocolate offerings in the bag.

All dressed up to be given as Christmas gifts, and I am happy to say, there was enthusiastic feedback from the recipients!

Ian wasn’t thrilled.

None left.

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Melting Middle Truffles

(slightly adapted from a Good Food magazine 2008 recipe)

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1/2 x 397g tin Caramel/Dulce de Leche
100g dark chocolate (60-70%), chopped

400g milk chocolate (I used 200g milk and 200g 50% dark choc), chopped
142ml pot double cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

cocoa powder to dust

Make the middle:
Put the caramel into a small saucepan and heat gently to melt it.
Stir in the 100g dark chocolate until smooth.

Cover a dinner plate with clingfilm, oil it, then pour the mix onto the clingfilm and spread evenly.
Freeze until really firm – you will be able to lift it as a bendy disc when it’s firm enough.
Failing the presence of a freezer, refridgerate until firm, but be prepared to keep returning it to the fridge to firm up, as you work.

Put the 400g chocolate in a bowl.
Heat the cream and pour it over the chocolate. Leave for a minute and stir to melt. If, like mine, your kitchen is too cold for this to work, put the bowl in the microwave and zap for 20-30 second intervals until it is melted and smooth.
Cool, then chill until set.

When both mixtures are ready, you might like to don some vinyl/serial killer gloves and do some prep.
Sift some cocoa into a shallow bowl.
Get a plate to put the finished truffles on.

Cut the caramel mix into small pieces – about the size of your thumbnail.

I don’t enjoy maths, but I hate it less than having too much of one mix left over, so I tend to score each mixture into quarters so that I can get a feel for whether I’m using the right amount of each.

Take a heaped tsp of the truffle mix, create a chamber with your thumb and insert a piece of the choc-caramel, then gather it round to seal.
Sounds complex, but this stuff melts in your hands and moulds easily – you’ll get your own method sorted.

Roll the truffle in the cocoa and set to one side.

Keep the truffles in the week for around 1 week before eating, or freeze for a month!
I packaged them into little pretty bags with some brownies cut into tiny petit-four squares, dusted with icing sugar for a colour contrast.