My First Tuesday with Dorie

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, 

who put darkness for light and light for darkness, 

who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." 

Isaiah 5:20

So even though I am on a diet, I will try and fit in Tuesdays with Dorie.   On Saturday most of my kids plus some had a 1960s party in the back yard, side yard actually, where Riley has newly put up a barrier to keep people off the crumbly steps leading from the side down to the pool area.  We've got a fire pit there, and they were roasting marshmallows.  It actually smelled like a marshmallow factory from the street even.  But anyway, I realized that there was a bunch of eaters for my Dorie recipe of the week.  I took a poll, and decided that I had a sufficient number of eaters.

Chocolate Pudding

Upon thoroughly reading the recipe I spotted at the very end that the dessert needed to chill for four hours.  Well growing up we had warm pudding for dessert often, so I wasn't going to let that deter me.  But also, the recipe called for using the food processor extensively, and late on a Saturday night I was in no mood for that, so I didn't exactly follow the directions.  I figured that the whole point of all that food processor use was to completely melt the chocolate and make the pudding smooth.  I know from experience that the microwave does an excellent job of melting chocolate, so I took that route.

My Adjustments to Dorie's Chocolate Pudding

I used 1% milk instead of whole milk
I used Hershey's Special Dutch Cocoa
I used a Trader Joe's brand that I really like called PoundPlus, imported from Belgium)


Instead of six ramekins or pudding cups I had 9 2/3 cup dishes

Instead of bring 2 cups of the milk and 3 tablespoons of the sugar to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan I brought it to a simmer.

I had no patience for fussing with the food processor for such a small batch, so I put the egg and egg yolks in a glass bowl, and set them by the pot on the stove. Then I mixed the sugar and cornflour and cocoa, added the chocolate that I had cut into small shavings with a great big knife, the remaining sugar, and a 1/2 cup milk and put it into the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes. Then I gave it a good stir. I put some of the hot milk into the egg mixture and stirred it up. And then I stirred the egg mixture into the hot milk. Them I vigorously stirred the chocolate mixture into the hot milk and while stirring, brought it to a boil. Then I removed it from the heat, stirred in the butter and vanilla, and ladled the pudding into the bowls, using a 1/4 cup ladle.

Instead of  refrigerating for at least 4 hours, it was mostly eaten right away, but I saved some aside for the next day and it was very good.  And one was still waiting in the refrigerator today, and it was very good.  It definitely keeps more than two days and still tastes just as good.

I got 9 servings, but then I'm known for skimpy servings


The pudding cooled down fairly quickly and the kids were keen to have some pudding, so they went to it. It seemed to be a big hit. My youngest daughter, Sarah, decided that she wanted to top hers with a toasted marshmallow. She is expecting a baby on July 28th, which will be grandchild number three - Caleb.

Einstein was eating chocolate when he came upon the theory of relativity.