Crème de la Crème Chocolate Pudding: Bobbi Mumm

My mystery and chocolate worlds collide again! I met Bobbi Mumm on Facebook and Twitter. So good to call her a friend, even if she does live in Saskatoon! That's what's so much fun about Social Networking! Recently Bobbi posted her recipe for Chocolate Pudding on Facebook, and I must say the photo had me at... well, chocolate. I asked if she'd do a guest post, and here you have it!

Bobbi Mumm is a mystery and thriller writer in Saskatoon, Canada where she works half-time as an event planner at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2009 Bobbi wrote her first novel, Cream with Your Coffin. This past year, Bobbi signed with a U.S. literary agent who is now pitching Cream with Your Coffin to New York editors. Almost finished her second novel, thriller De Rigueur Mortis, Bobbi has fallen in love, all over again, with the mystery that is Paris.

Bobbi Mumm:

When my family asks for pudding, one of my favourites is this recipe, adapted from The Joy of Cooking, Chocolate Pudding. The addition of the cream turns the slow enjoyment of this rich chocolate dessert into a sensory delight.

Crème de la Crème Chocolate Pudding (6 servings)

½ cup cocoa
¾ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt (scant)
½ cup warm water
¼ cup chocolate shavings or chips (good quality dark chocolate)
2 cups low-fat milk
½ cup plus one tablespoon heavy cream (whipping cream)
4½ tablespoons cornstarch mixed into a paste (in a measuring cup) with
1/3 cup low-fat milk
2 teaspoons vanilla (real vanilla)

Stir dry ingredients in a heavy bottomed pan. Add water, mixing to a runny paste. Heat to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate shavings until melted.

Add milk and cream (2½ cups) to chocolate mixture. Stir in cornstarch paste. Mix thoroughly. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until it begins to thicken. Reduce heat to low, stirring, until mixture begins to simmer. Continue stirring and cook for one minute more.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour immediately into pretty glasses or dessert cups. Refrigerate, uncovered, at least three hours.

Savour by eating with a very small coffee spoon.

Photo: Bobbi  Mumm