Decadent Dessert

Today is brought to you by the letter D. I see that many of the A-Z bloggers chose chocolate for their letter C. Well, I'm going to tempt your tastebuds with this Decadent Dessert -- Double Chocolate Pudding. This is a recipe that I've created over time, trying different combinations and amounts of chocolate. This is my final version, and man is it good. If you're used to pre-made puddings, or even the mix in milk kind, you will not believe it when you taste this.

Double Chocolate Pudding

1 cup sugar, divided
3 tablsepoons cornstarch
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
3 egg yolks
1 whole egg
2 cups whole milk
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons butter

Put 1/2 cup sugar, the cornstarch, and the cocoa powder into a medium saucepan.


Whisk together to mix and remove any lumps (by doing this, you avoid having to sift the cocoa powder).


In a mixing bowl, put the other 1/2 cup sugar, the egg yolks and egg.


With a different whisk, whisk until the color lightens and the mixture streams off the whisk.


Pour the milk into the cocoa powder mixture, and cook over medium-high heat while stirring. When it starts to boil and thickens a little, then take it off the heat. Gradually pour it into the egg mixture while stirring. (Doing it gradually will prevent you from cooking the eggs. You just want to gradually heat them up.) Pour all the mixture back into the pot and heat over medium heat for two minutes, while stirring.


Chop the chocolate (this can actually be done while the milk mixture is heating up.)


Take the pudding mixture off the stove. Pour the chopped chocolate into the pudding.


Add the vanilla and butter and stir in completely.


Pour into individual one-cup ramekins. This recipe makes about 10.


This is the cookbook that gave me the starter recipe, which I modified. There are some amazing desserts in here -- I highly recommend the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, which is the birthday cake my mom made for me every year when I was young.


Thank you to my son for taking some of these photos. And thank you for not taking one when I was licking the bowl.

It's Christmas Cookie Time

It's been a different kind of Christmas season for me this year. We're in the middle of a home renovation that is now at the CHAOS stage. After adding on, the workers are now inside the house tearing apart the kitchen. I'm leap-frogging our possessions from room to room as I'm clearing out closets and all our kitchen cabinets. We officially switched to paper plates and microwave dinners. I also have two rooms' worth of furniture stuck in my living room. Because of this, we've done not a stitch of Christmas decorating. No tree, no outdoor lights, no holiday plates to eat from or Santa mugs for hot chocolate.

In the midst of all this, my Dad went into the hospital the week after Thanksgiving. I've driven the 2+ hours north to Cocoa Beach twice, with the last visit a 7-day stay where I parked myself in his hospital room. To cut to the ending, he's gotten much better, they've cured his ailments, but he's struggling to walk after being in a hospital bed for 18 days. I would too, and he's 91! Anyway, my brother and sister and I are taking turns being with him, and I'm back now with my family for a bit. Hey, my daughter's a Santa believer, so we need to do at least a little bit of Christmas!

I knew just what would make it feel like Christmas -- baking Christmas cookies. So before my latest trip to Cocoa Beach, my neighbor and I got together and I made two of my mom's traditional recipes -- Spritz Cookies and Velvet Cookies. They're both made with a cookie press (I got a fancy electric one quite a few years back), and we cranked out quite a few hundred.


In our family, the white ones were always flowers, with a lemon flavor; the pink ones were hearts with a peppermint flavor. Those are from the Spritz recipe. The green ones were Christmas trees and we used the Velvet Cookies recipe. Oh man, those cookies taste so good! The recipe has peanut butter and a little bit of almond extract. Instead of white sugar, there's confectioner's sugar, which gives it that velvet feeling. Here's the recipe you can try, and maybe the craziness of your holiday season can feel a little better when you get in the kitchen and do some baking. This is a fun one to do with the kids because they love to decorate them with sprinkles.



Velvet Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
green food coloring
colored sprinkles

1. Cream the shortening, butter, sugar, and peanut butter, until fluffy.
2. Stir in the egg and extracts.
3. Gradually add dry ingredients to the mixture.
4. Add green food coloring, as desired.
5. Fill a cookie press with dough.
6. Form into desired shapes on an ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Decorate with colored sprinkles.
8. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.
9. Cool on wire racks.
10. Store in tightly sealed containers for 1-2 weeks.