Dessert On Short Notice

I’ve been chained to my computer lately due to work and even a special visit by Boyfriend from out of town could not drag me away. All weekend I felt really bad for not paying him much attention. Under normal circumstances, I would cook all kinds of “boy food” and we would feast. Unfortunately, the best that I could do this weekend was some roasted potatoes, turkey burger, french lentils in vinaigrette, smoked salmon cherry quinoa, and noodle salad with peppers & seared tofu. Most of these are my regular day-to-day dishes and not exactly exciting to the male species. Yesterday I finally got a breather from work late in the day so I immediately set about making something special for both of us.

Dessert often requires a bit of planning especially if you want something that screams special occasion. Luckily, chocolate pudding is an exception. When made with ingredient of the highest quality and served in fancy glasses, this lunch box staple can be made fit for the most romantic evening. Even if we were just watching post-season baseball in our flannel pyjamas. After all, the recipe is officially named Deepest, Darkest Chocolate Pudding by the famed White House pastry chef Bill Yosses. How can it not be the decadent treat I was looking for?

The recipe comes from Yosses book, The Perfect Finish: Special Desserts for Every Occasion. To make this pudding as rich as can be, both cocoa and dark chocolate are used. I enhanced the chocolate flavour with a smidge of instant espresso. However, the most enticing characteristic about this pudding is the extra smooth texture. After the custard finished cooking, it was poured directly into a food processor to melt the chocolate and whirled to the silkiest consistency. This little extra step is worth the extra dishes I needed to clean.

As much as I love this recipe, I must confess that the cookbook can use some more editing. Yosses published an addendum on Amazon for some of the inconsistencies and errors in the book. However, for the chocolate pudding recipe, I still found a few errors in the direction (the recipe as written is available at The Book Case). For example, the 1/2 cup of cream was only mentioned in the ingredients list but not in the instruction. Also, vanilla extract should not be scalded with the milk because it would lose all its flavour. Vanilla bean infusion is correct but the extract ought to be added after the custard finishes cooking. If you are an experienced cook, you can probably figure them out instinctively. But for beginners, following this recipe to the letter would likely lead to a few questions.

I served the pudding with dollops of spiced whiskey whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Although the photos show the pudding in a wine glass, I only made one this way. All the rest was actually poured into 8oz wide-mouth canning jars so the individual portions are easy to store and easy to carry around. After savouring the chocolate pudding together last night, I sent Boyfriend home this morning with a packed lunch containing one big pudding cup. Now that’s what I call a brown bag lunch full of love.

Comments

[Eileen]

That looks amazing. I want to stick my face in it. That's too bad about the inaccurate recipes, though. Things like that would definitely mess me up.

[sindy]

look delicious.. would it be psosible to share the recipe so i can try making it too?

[DessertByCandy]

@Eileen LOL I wanted to stick my face in the bowl of pudding too before I divided them into individual servings. What a facial that would be!

@sindy The recipe as written in the book is available at The Book Case (http://www.bookpage.com/the-book-case/2010/09/16/recipe-of-the-week-deepest-darkest-chocolate-pudding/).

[Melissa]

Hi Candy, Melissa from Food Bloggers of Canada here. Just popping by to check out your blog and let you know we've added you to the FBC Member Directory. Welcome aboard! That pudding looks so good but what really caught my eye was the whisky whipped cream :)