There are many reasons to love chocolate. Our love for it has made them find their way into confectioneries, desserts, drinks, pastries, soups and some savories even. ‘Chocolate’ come under those ‘beloved’ food categories. Most of us adore it. Have it daily or pretty often. Crave for it regularly. Savor the heavenly taste as it coats the tongue. Having chocolates makes us happy, scientifically proven they say. They also say chocolate,the dark variety is good for the heart. True or not, I would not want to prove it wrong. I prefer to believe in them always and each time I bite into one. Makes me less guilty having them! No doubt chocolates come with calories. They are ‘bittersweet’ treat, right?!
And lastly, you don`t need many excuses to indulge in chocolates. You love it, and that`s all it takes to dive into world of chocolates!
One can never go wrong with chocolates! And especially not this dessert! Satiny smooth and easy to make chocolate pudding with the classic digestive biscuits is a winning combo – always! Serve this delightful pudding for dinner parties or as a weekend treat..
- Milk – 7oo ml/ 3 ½ cups
- Sugar – 21 tsp/ ½ cup
- Cocoa powder – 3 tbsp
- Vanilla custard powder/ Cornflour – 3 tbsp
- Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
- Choco chips (optional) – 2 tsps
- Marie biscuit/ digestive biscuits – 16
- Any 1 or combination of 2-3 your choice - dry roasted and broken cashew, raisins, grated chocolate, strawberries when in season, sliced bananas or caramelized bananas etc.
- Shallow serving tray/ dish – 7”x 11”
- In a thick bottomed vessel, heat 3 cups milk. Let start to come to a boil.
- Meanwhile in a small bowl mix together the remaining half cup milk, cocoa powder and vanilla custard powder (or cornflour). Mix with a hand whisk to remove lumps and combine well till smooth. Set aside.
- When milk comes to a boil, add sugar and stir to dissolve.
- Stir the cocoa-custard mixture once and pour into the milk-sugar at a slight whilst stirring the milk in the vessel constantly to avoid any lumps. Add choco chips if adding. Stir constantly and continue to cook over very low heat till it thickens and coats the back of a spoon and you are able to draw a line. This may take about 2 to 3 mins or depending on the quality of the custard powder.
- Remove from heat when done, add vanilla essence and continue to whisk for 5 more mins as it cooks down to avoid forming any cream layer on top. This is optional.
- Let custard cool to just warm.
- Take the serving dish and arrange a layer of8 biscuits as base. Top with half the chocolate custard and level it. Cover it with remaining 8 biscuits & pour remaining custard over it, level it.
- Decorate with your choice of garnish on top. Chill in refrigerator till set, at least 3 to 4 hours.
- Serve chilled!
- If the custard thickens and is level to pour over the biscuit for layering, add 2-3 tbsps of milk and blend with hand whisk (or even in a blender!) and then pour.
- You could dip the biscuits in plain milk to soften and then arrange in baking tray.
- You could dip the biscuits in some coffee decoction and then arrange in baking try. For coffee decoction, mix 1 cup hot water with 1 to 2 tsps instant coffee powder.
- You could serve only the pudding too without layering it.
- Use serving dish of any shape/ size.
- You could layer the pudding in 3 to 4 layers too instead of 2.