Ten Minute Chocolate Fix: Creamy Nutella Pudding

When comfort food and dessert collide, what you wind up with is pudding. Warm or chilled, a creamy bowl of chocolate you can curl up and eat with a spoon is about as good as it gets. Even better if you’ve swirled a large spoonful of Nutella into the mix, allowing it to melt in along with the chocolate. Nutella pudding. Why did it take me so long to think of this?

Sure, you could do the same with a mix, but don’t bother – it’s almost as easy to make chocolate pudding from scratch, using real ingredients you probably have in your cupboard already. Make yours with 1% milk, soy milk, 2% or half & half if you’re going for indulgence. The chopped chocolate isn’t necessary, but it adds intensity to the flavor and creates an even creamier texture.

Creamy Chocolate Nutella Pudding

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
Pinch salt
2 cups milk or light cream
2 oz. chopped semi-sweet chocolate or 1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 cup Nutella

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt. Stir in about a cup of the milk and whisk until the mixture is smooth and well blended, then whisk in the remaining milk. Set the pan over medium heat and cook, whisking constantly, for about 5 minutes or until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Continue to cook the pudding for another minute.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chocolate and Nutella. Let it sit for a few minutes to let the chocolate melt, and stir it until it’s smooth.
Divide the pudding between 4-6 small bowls. Let it cool for about 20 minutes and serve it warm, or put it in the fridge for at least half an hour (or several hours) and serve it cold. If you don’t like pudding “skin”, cover the surface with plastic wrap before you chill it. Serves 4.

 http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/01/13/ten-minute-chocolate-fix-creamy-nutella-pudding/