Elise, your blogs were the inspiration for me to start blogging a year and a half ago. And I've just come across them again under Blogher. Fantastic stuff - well done.

As for Aldie: she looks like an amazing assistant. Let her know she's free to come over to Sydney, Australia, to make me chocolate pudding any time!

Hi Aldie & Elise

What great photos of your fun time in the kitchen! Those big smiles tell me that it was worth waiting at least 2 hours while the pudding cooled - did it feel like ages? You didn't cheat and eat them earlier did you? I think I would have!

Cheers, Robyn

Hi Aldie! That pudding looks great! And guess what! Last week I made chocolate pudding with a girl who's nine -- poor girl, her mother doesn't like chocolate so we figure she can't grow up to be a proper woman without a regular Chocolate Mentor, that's me! So we get together every once in awhile to make chocolate things, just like you and Elise!

Yum!...and so much better than the junk from a box!

I love to see these kids having so much fun and especially like hearing that they enjoy helping with the cleanup. I regularly cook with a family of three kids (all older than this bunch) and it is almost impossible to get them to clean up! In fact, any of my items that are used are taken home and re-washed because they do such a horrid job.

How is it that none of those cute faces are covered in chocolate? I don't have kids of my own, but I'm always amazed at our friends' children -- if ice cream, pudding, or icing are close by, their faces will soon be covered!

PS -- just tried the recipe, and am anxiously awaiting for it to cool. However, the spoon tasted great!

Hello Ladies,
Love the last pic of you girls enjoying your pudding - Your pudding looks YUMMY - Lucky you!!!

Hello Alden and Reilly and Elise;
When my children were little they used to like making a pudding like this, and put "snakes" it it and then calling the pudding "snake swamp pudding". The snakes weren't real of course! Here in Australia we can buy candy snakes (we call candies "lollies" here). Can you buy them in America?

Hello Aldie and Reilly -
My daughter, Mia, is going to try your recipe for chocolate pudding this weekend. Even though she is much older than you (23!) she has almost no cooking experience, so she's quite grateful you've included photos demonstrating your technique. So am I, because I'm going to be eating the results (lucky mommy.)
Keep on cooking, ladies - Claire

Oh Yum!!! I absolutely love chocolate pudding, and so does my 4 year old son!
We also love to make it together, and even more eat afterwards. It is so conforting and yummy!
You all did a great job, the pudding looks delicious creamy and chocolatey, just as it should be!
Ana

re: raw eggs, I believe that something like 1 in 30,000 eggs is contaminated with salmonella. I have eaten raw egg-containing food (or undercooked eggs) many times, and I have never been sick. I have, however, become 'sick' so many times after eating in restaurants that I can't count.

I lived in a student co-op and a significant number of the people didn't even refrigerate their eggs, suffering no ill effects.

Plus, pouring very hot chocolate into eggs will indeed cook them to some degree. Hence, you must add the chocolate to the egg slowly or else it will seize up and become this bizzare, clumpy oily mess. :)

Well today I tried making it with Organic soymilk (lactose intolerant) so we'll see how it turns out! It thickened up nicely in the pot, hopefully it will firm up more in the fridge. It's a great simple recipe. I love pudding but I haven't eaten it since I came up as a lacty. Can't wait! Thanks for the opportunity.

I just made this pudding to use as a pie filling, but I used coconut milk in place of the whole milk since I am allergic to dairy. It turned out so yummy! My 5 yr old daughter and I had fun making it and we really like licking the bowl...mmmmmmmm- she is totally wearing the chocolate on her face & mini chef's jacket! Thanks Aldie, Reilly & Elise. Happy Thanksgiving!

I made this the other day and it was very tasty indeed! However, it stayed quite soft and "runny," even after it was fully set up. I prefer a chocolate pudding that has a little more of a "jelled" quality, a little stiffer. Is there something I did wrong, or is there something I can to do make it a bit more "set up"? Maybe more corn starch?

I have made the Martha Stewart recipe a few times, and that one has more of the texture I'm talking about, although I like the flavor of your recipe much better. Her's is way too intense in chocolate-y-ness (am I really saying something is too chocolate-y?!), though it is also a very good recipe.

Thanks.

Hi there!

That pudding looks too yummy for words! Hope to make it sometime this week; thanks for sharing it.
Alden - you and your friends had me wishing I was a child again! Happy cooking!!

I was looking for a good pudding recipe, because I have milk goats and we had 4 gallons that needed to be used. My kids are in High school and college so they had no interest in helping me make it, but they sure ate it up fast enough. It was very good. In fact I am on my way into the kitchen right now to make more....

I agree with the others who say that this pudding is delicious but does not set. I followed the instructions exactly and the pudding never set in the fridge after 3 hours. I also was concerned about the raw egg bit. Elise - how do you get it to set? Does it need some gelatin? As I was concerned about the egg and am used to British custards, I decided to take it out of the fridge and reheat/simmer it. The pudding did thicken and was much more tasty and less worrisome, but it still never set. Please comment if possible. Thanks.
P.S. It also tastes nice with a spot of brandy.

Regarding the egg, the heat of the chocolate mixture is enough to "cook" the egg sufficiently. Regarding "setting", this is not the same consistency of a custard. It does not set the same way. It is smooth and creamy. ~Elise

This pudding looked and sounded delicious, however none of us would eat it, including my 5 and 3 year old. It was also pretty runny. It had more of a dark chocolate taste, which I normally like but this was kind of odd. Sorry, I won't make it again.

Delicious recipe!
I too was a little concerned with the raw egg upon reading, but you're pouring boiling chocolate into the egg. I'm sure it cooks enough.
It set perfectly for us, and was quite light, almost mousse-y.
AND, my son's name is Alden, too. So that made this all the better. Have printed & added to our collection! :)
Thanks for the great recipe.

I made this today only I subbed butterscotch chips for the chocolate. Came out perfect. I will be adding this to my recipe collection.

Hey there!

I made this recipe and it was really great! We substituted the cornstarch with flour because of corn allergies. It turned out FANTASTIC! We didn't chill ours, we did actually call it chocolate soup and then when it cooled it was quite thick. Ginoche like! We loved it!

This was great! Didnt seem to have any problems getting it to set but I have to say I probably simmer/boiled it for closer to 15 min while stirring constantly. I ended up using 70% chocolate pieces as I didnt have any semisweet chips avail. This probably made it just a tad richer than i would have wanted but it was still "lovely jubbly" as my 9 year old told me.

I realize this recipe was posted quite some time ago, but for those who had problems getting it to thicken -- try more cornstarch. I've been making a recipe from Argo for years and it uses about 1½ tablespoons of cornstarch per cup of milk.

Amazing recipe. The pudding tasted perfect as cooked in bakeries. Thank you so much for posting such an easy and wonderful recipe.