Grandma's Old-Fashioned Homemade Chocolate Pudding ~ A Recipe ~ Titus 2 Tips {On Thursdays}

Grandma knew her way around the kitchen.

She could throw a few things in here and there, mix this and that, and whisk up, beat, roll, and dish out some delicious goodness. She loved to cook for her family.

And we loved when Grandma cooked for us. Especially when she made her homemade chocolate pudding and it would be waiting in individual bowls in the kitchen for us after we had walked home from school.

The last time I made Grandma's pudding was 10 days before she turned 90. Fifteen days after her birthday Grandma breathed her last breath here on this earth.

The way Grandma loved to provide tasty treats was a fond memory of her at her funeral.

Her old-fashioned cooked pudding is now being enjoyed by the next generation of children. Some days a delicious bowl of Grandma's homemade chocolate pudding is just the right lip-sacking, tempting-to-lick-the-bowl kind of after school or after soccer or before or after any sort of activity snack.

I know your mouth may be watering now, but the good news is that soon you will soon be able to sit down with your own bowl of this decadent dessert. In order for you to indulge in this way, I will pass on the recipe that I have scratched together to get it as close as possible to Grandma's throw-some-ingredients-together-and-out-comes-the-best chocolate pudding.

I will share it with you in memory of my Grandma.

Directions:



Invite your neighbour over for a bowl of pudding as an excuse to snuggle her new-born baby girl. Then gather all your ingredients and hope your chocolate pudding turns out silky smooth and deliciously creamy.

Make sure you follow the directions carefully so you don't end up with lumpy pudding.



Sift sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch together in a saucepan.

Slowly pour in the milk and whisk with sugar mixture.



In a separate bowl, gently beat the eggs and set aside.

On a medium heat, continue to whisk the milk mixture.



As the milk begins to warm, temper the eggs. The way I do this is slowly add spoonfuls of the warming milk to the eggs until the eggs and milk are the same temperature.



When the eggs have been tempered, gradually add them to the milk mixture in the saucepan—unless you let your boy do it and then they are poured in not. so. gradually. If you are good with a whisk it will still turn out, so go ahead and let the kids join in!



Continue to whisk as the pudding thickens and comes to a slow boil. Little bubbles will rise to the surface and burst.

Add the vanilla, butter and a pinch of salt.



Let the pudding sit and cool for 5 minutes and stir occasionally before serving into individual dessert bowls. Be sure to divide the pudding evenly as children have been known to burst into tears if they feel they are being served a teaspoon less than others. Or send them to their room and eat their portion (as disciplinarian measures, of course). I'll tell you honestly, I did not eat it, but I sure thought about it!



See if you can wait until it has cooled completely before you devour your portion of the pudding.

And make sure you share with your children (or at least be willing to make them another batch if you succumb to the temptation to eat it all). This is less likely to happen if you invite your neighbour over. Then you are forced to share with everyone.



If you didn't get enough you could always lick the leftovers on the whisk. Just be careful you don't get your tongue stuck. And I recommend you do this when your neighbour has returned to her home.

Ingredients:

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c. cocoa

2 tbsp. cornstarch

2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp butter

Pinch of salt

Titus 2 Tips I am honoured to host these guest posts in this series on women mentoring women. (Occasionally I will write a tip for you; you will notice today's post is not a guest post, but from yours truly!)  Some weeks you may find tips from the kitchen or healthy recipes, tools other women have used to grow spiritually, hints to help us build up and love our husbands, and lessons they have learned as they have walked along with their children to teach them to love God wholeheartedly, habits they have developed in keeping their home, ways they have worked on to keep their behaviour respectful, or rhythms that allow peace and rest in the home and hearts that dwell there within. You will find all the posts in the series here.  "Older women likewise are to be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." {Titus 2:3-5}