Homemade Chocolate Pudding

This Homemade Chocolate Pudding will have you licking your bowl clean. This pudding has a double dose of chocolate: cocoa powder and dark chocolate. Using these two forms of chocolate result in a true chocolate flavor, one that’s rich, but not so rich you can only eat 3 bites. No quite the contrary actually. I can assure you that you’ll eat every last bite and then some. There are a handful of things I really enjoy about this recipe: flavor is superb, takes 20 minutes to make (prep time + cook time), and it uses basic kitchen ingredients.

Cornstarch – this is the thickening agent that will make this chocolate pudding, eh… pudding like. Unsweetened cocoa powder – I always use Hershey’s brand of cocoa powder, but not the dark chocolate cocoa powder. You *can* use the dark cocoa powder, but it will result in a much richer and darker chocolate pudding flavor. Granulated sugar – I used 3/4 cups of sugar in this recipe and it was perfect, however, if you want it a tad sweeter, add an additional 1-2 tablespoons of sugar when making the pudding.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar - can add 1-2 more tablespoons if you'd like the pudding to be a lot sweeter
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups milk - whole milk or 2%
• 4 oz dark chocolate bar - DIVIDED and finely chopped (use 60-70%)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons butter - at room temperature