Food -- Chocolate is food?

[lsanderson]

You Call That Pudding, Grandma?
By MELISSA CLARK

I HAD no intention of making chocolate ice cream. I wanted only the perfect chocolate pudding.

For years, when striving to make the ultimate, silky, profoundly fudgy chocolate pudding, I invariably looked to Grandma. Oh, not to either of my Grandmas, who relied on boxed mixes with pallid results. But to an iconic silver-haired Grandma whom I envisioned stirring a pot of farm fresh milk, eggs, cornstarch and melted chocolate to a creamy, intense perfection.

For over a decade, I happily stirred my way through pudding recipes from the most tried-and-true grandmotherly sources I could find: Fannie Farmer and “Joy of Cooking,” Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and spiralbound Junior League cookbooks.

And all the puddings were pretty good — jiggly and smooth, with addictive sticky skins that I greedily peeled off and ate while standing in front of the fridge. But none was quite good enough to send me back for more.

At restaurants, chocolate pudding was an entirely different creature, one that had nothing to do with Grandma. Luscious and sexy, with a haunting bittersweet flavor and a texture like a silk camisole, it was less family matron than femme fatale.

So what did these puddings have that mine didn’t, other than possibly a whole lot of heavy cream? More

Milk Chocolate-Banana Pudding
Dark Chocolate Flan With New Mexican Chili, Cinnamon and Pepita Praline
Extra-Bittersweet Chocolate Pots de Crème
Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream With Salted Cashews

German Rieslings, Light and Dry
‘Bolt From the Blue’ on a Tuscan Red

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Whimper.

I'm not drooling; that would be gross. But I am whimpering. A lot.

Drooling OK Now...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

I put the picture in. Kinda tasty sounding...

Re: Drooling OK Now...

[daedala.livejournal.com]

I think perhaps we should experiment?

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

Goodness, I love the foodie stuff you post! I'm an uncommitted foodie- don't spend my time chasing it, but like it when something cool jumps up and bites me in the butt. Did you realize you've been nibbling at my backside every time you post stuff like this?


Sorry about that mental picture...now I need brain bleach too.