Chocolate Caramel Pudding Recipe

Chocolate Caramel Pudding Recipe

Everyone's favorite chocolate pudding is made even more delicious by starting with a caramel base. Chocolate caramel pudding is a wonderful stove top dessert treat, especially in summer when cold desserts are a must!

Course Custard and Pudding Recipes

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Chill Time 3

Total Time 3 30

Servings

Calories 484kcal

Author Jennifer Field

Equipment

Ingredients

⅔ cup sugar
4 oz water 1/2 cup
6 oz 3/4 cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 Tablespoons flour
10 oz 1 1/4 cup whole milk (divided)
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
2 Tablespoons each dark chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla paste
2 Tablespoons butter

Instructions

Place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cocoa powder, flour, about half the milk, and the salt until completely combined. Set aside.
In another bowl, place the chocolate chips, vanilla, and butter. Place a fine mesh strainer over the bowl.
Heat the sugar mixture over medium-high to high heat until it comes to a boil.
Put a lid on the pot for 2 minutes so the steam will clear any sugar crystals off the sides of the pot.
Remove the lid and let the sugar cook until it's a deep caramel color. The mixture will visibly thin out and you may catch a couple of wisps of smoke coming off of it.
Turn off the heat and immediately add the heavy cream all at once.
Stir until smooth.
Slowly temper in the caramel mixture into the cocoa powder/milk mixture, whisking all the while.
Pour all the mixture back into the pot along with the rest of the milk.
Cook and stir until it comes to a boi. Allow the mixture to boil for 30 seconds or so, and then pour it through the strainer into the bowl of butter, chocolate chips, and vanilla. Using your heatproof spatula, press all the pudding through the strainer into the bowl.
Let sit for 30 seconds or so to melt the chips and then stir until smooth and beautiful.
Pour into 4 half-cup containers. Let cool until barely warm and the refrigerate until cold, about 2-3 hours.
Serve as is or with some whipped cream on top.
Enjoy!

Video

Notes

A Note About the Video

I think hands in pans videos are fine for getting an overview of how a recipe is put together. But to really understand the technique and what you should be looking for at different stages, I think it’s best to watch in real time.

The video of me making this recipe is a Facebook Live video that I have edited just lightly to get rid of most of the extraneous talk that is fun for live audiences but not so much for people watching after the fact.

Y’all don’t need to hear about the weather or me answering questions that are not relevant to making the recipe.

But I do think it’s instructive to get a sense of how long it actually takes to make this pudding so you can schedule your time wisely.

If you want to watch from the beginning, you’ll see all the mise en place: measuring out all the ingredients, getting them in their correct bowls, whisking some Items together, etc.

If you don’t want to mess with watching the mise, but you have never caramelized sugar before, please at least start at 10:05 to see the caramelization process.

To watch me stop the caramelizing with heavy cream, temper the hot caramel into the egg yolks, and actually make the pudding, start at 18:45.

To Substitute Cornstarch for the Flour

The sub is 1:1. The only difference is that if you use cornstarch, you'll need to boil your pudding for a full 2 minutes.

To Scale the Recipe Up

All the ingredients can be mulitplied by 2 to get 4 cups worth of pudding. Multiply by 3 for 6 cups and by 4 to get 8 cups.

For Example, here are the measurements you'll need for 6 cups of pudding, multiplying all ingredients by 3:

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
18 oz heavy cream (2 1/4 cups)
6 egg yolks
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
6 Tablespoons flour or cornstarch
30 oz whole milk (3 3/4 cups)
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
6 Tablespoons each milk chocolate chips and dark chocolate chips
4 1/2 teaspoons (1 Tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons) vanilla
6 Tablespoons (3 oz or 3/4 stick) unsalted butter

Serving Size

I have set the serving size at 4 oz or 1/2 cup. That is not a lot of pudding for one serving, but since it is so rich, I don't think you need more than that.

But you are grown and can do what you want. You are more than welcome to set your serving size at 1 cup. In that case, this recipe will yield two 1 cup servings of pudding.

If you set your serving size at 2/3 cup, the recipe will yield 3 servings.

Nutrition