Chocolate Blueberry Pudding

It’s become kind of a family tradition to go peach picking every summer, since my preschooler is fully capable of devouring up to four peaches a day and adores picking fruit of all kinds. However, due to an early frost this year the entire local peach crop was destroyed, so we decided to go blueberry picking instead. She had a great time, eating them right off the bush and “looking out for bears.” (because we’ve read Blueberries for Sal)

Once we arrived home with our giant 5-lb bucket of blueberries, I was informed by my daughter that we would be making pudding. Blueberry pudding. With chocolate. I’d never really heard of a chocolate blueberry pudding before, but hey, we had five pounds of berries, we could afford to give it a shot. I decided to go really simple, with a basic cornstarch-thickened pudding poured over whole blueberries– I could’ve made an egg-yolk-thickened custard with real chocolate and a berry coulis, but we’re talking about a four-year-old here, she wasn’t going to appreciate the finer details and would probably prefer the basic dessert.

I compared a few recipes and went with the pudding recipe from Hershey’s kitchens, using their Special Dark cocoa instead of the regular cocoa– something I highly recommend for all recipes involving dry cocoa powder, since it lends really deep chocolate flavor and an almost-black color. The stovetop recipe thickened up nicely, and I poured it into ramekins to chill over handfuls of fresh blueberries. I think the heat from the pudding worked to cook them ever-so-slightly, and the flavor combination was surprisingly good! I think next time I’d reduce the cornstarch just a little since the pudding was just a bit rubbery, but aside from that it was a pretty good dessert!

Chocolate Blueberry Pudding (adapted from Hershey’s Kitchens)

1/4 cup Special Dark cocoa

2/3 cup sugar

3 tbs. cornstarch (or reduce to 2 tbs. and 1 tsp.)

1/4 tsp. salt

2 1/4 cups milk

2 tbs. butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1. Divide blueberries into small ramekins (1/2 cup to 1 cup each) and set aside.

2. Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium saucepan, then slowly add 1/2 cup of the milk to make a smooth chocolate mixture.

3. Add the rest of the milk, stir thoroughly, and whisk over medium-high heat until it comes to a boil. Boil for 1 minute and remove from heat.

4. Stir in butter and vanilla.

5. Pour pudding over blueberries in ramekins and immediately cover with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap onto the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming.

6. Chill at least 2 hours until set. If desired, garnish with additional blueberries.

Notes:

1. You know what I’d totally do next time for a grownup-style dessert? I’d make a berry coulis with ruby port, stir some fresh berries into it, and use that as the base for the pudding. I think it would go fabulously with the dark chocolate…

 

 

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