Eggless Chocolate Pudding- Valentine's Day Recipe

Love is in the air! With Valentine’s Day around the corner chocolates, roses and strawberries are the most sought after commodities. I like the celebrations, exaggerations and crazy stuff that goes around the world on this day but I m not the person who believes in the concept of a day meant for expressing love!!
Well its just that I have my own philosophies!!Anyway I like to go to restaurants on this specific day because of the special romantic-themed menus. The dessert part sure will have chocolates with n number of variations which I just wanna dive into. This year being a responsible food blogger I put together this simple eggless pudding made of chocolate which I used to prepare on wee hours during my pregnancy when one of those chocolate craving kicks in. Can be put together in 10 minutes and can be adjusted according to your taste and the ingredients you have on hand. Do read the notes as I have given the alternatives.

Ingredients:

Milk-1/2 cup

Fresh cream/heavy cream-1/2 cup

Unsweetened Cocoa powder-2 tbsp

Custard powder-2 tbsp

Dark chocolate/Chocolate chips-1/4 cup

Salt- 1 pinch

Sugar-5 tbsp

Vanilla extract- 3 drops

Chocolate shavings-for garnish

Strawberries-for garnish

How It Happened:

1. In a bowl add cream, cocoa powder, dark chocolate chips, custard powder, sugar and salt and mix well so all the ingredients are well blended. Break any lumps formed and set aside.

2. Heat milk in a pan, and when its starts boiling, simmer the flame, add the cream mixture slowly and keep stirring.

3. As you stir, all the lumps formed will dissolve and the mixture will become smooth and shiny. Cook for 5-7 minutes.

4. Slowly the mixture will get thickened. Keep cooking for 3 more minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.

5. Switch off the flame; allow it to cool for 5 minutes.

6. Transfer it to the individual serving bowls/glasses, dunk in a washed and pat-dried strawberry on top, wrap with a cling film on top and refrigerate for 5 hours.

7. While serving top it some chocolate shavings and serve with more fresh strawberries and some whipped cream!

Notes:

* You can skip cream and add 1 cup of milk. If you don’t have milk you can use water too. But the richness comes from milk. Adding cream makes it more luscious.

* I didn’t have dark chocolate/chocolate chips in hand. So I used regular milk chocolate (Cadbury silk). You can skip them too. Just an extra chocolatey touch is added! You can also add the chocolate sauce (Hershey’s) if you have on hand.

* I used Cadbury’s cocoa powder. I like Ghirardelli better. Use any cocoa powder of your choice.

* Instead of custard powder, corn flour/corn starch can be replaced.

* Always simmer the flame before adding cream mixture else they will curdle.

* Do not heat the mixture till it’s too thick else they will be rubbery/chewy when you eat.

* Do not rest it for long before transferring to serving glasses else they will start setting.

* Wet the inside walls of the serving glasses before adding the pudding mixture, so they don’t stick to the glasses. ( learnt from Sala's Veggie Belly)

* Use any toppings of your choice, like color sprinkles, M&Ms…