Movie food: Chocolate pudding

I'm afraid cute cooking rats pale in comparison these days to Harry Potter.  My daughters also took a dim view of cooking vegetable stew, preferring instead to make pudding. Why pudding? Because Luna Lovegood, their new favorite J.K. Rowling character, adores pudding. As the girls broke Valrhona bittersweet chocolate into the top of a double boiler (which they'd pretended to heat with their wands), and later, as we ate spoonfuls of the chocolate pudding topped with freshly whipped cream and a sprig of chocolate mint from Maggie's Farm, I could see their point.

Luna's Chocolate Pudding: Bring 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 cups of milk to just below boiling in a heavy saucepan. Melt 6 ounces of Valrhrona bittersweet chocolate and 2 tablespoons of butter in the top of a double boiler. Off heat, whisk 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons cornstarch and 1 tablespoon vanilla into half of the milk mixture, then add the melted chocolate and the rest of the milk. Pour into 6 teacups and chill for an hour. Top with fresh whipped cream and, if you like, grated chocolate.

If you have any extra, it makes a nice snack. Especially if you're halfway through Rowling's seventh book and won't be cooking anything until you're finished.

-- Amy Scattergood

Photo by Amy Scattergood

Comments

[Victoria]

The British use the word pudding to mean the dessert course at the end of a meal. So Luna doesn't necessarily love pudding, she loves dessert. But your recipe would tempt her, I am sure. And as Harry's favorite "pudding" seems to be treacle tart, perhaps you could work that one out too. And who doesn't love Luna? As Ron says in Deathly Hallows, "She's always good value."

[Andrea]

What you made is chocolate custard, according to English standards. When my mum-in-law makes chocolate pudding, it is a baked dessert with a softer wetter consistency than cake, but a drier, crumbier consistency than custard. It is delicious. Perhaps you could try to find a recipe for an English pudding to make with your girls and publish for other Luna Lovegood fans!

[Kelly]

The British do use the word pudding to mean general dessert- fun recipe though!

[Jeanne]

That's a really cute story to tie in the the recipe (I'm a Luna fan too!) but I thought the British use the word pudding for cake or general dessert...