Smooth and creamy homemade chocolate pudding sweetened with honey instead of sugar. It’s delicious served warm or cold, plain or dressed up with whipped cream.
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Hello friends!
First indulge me for a moment of reflection…
I can’t believe that tomorrow marks The Cook’s Treat’s 2-year anniversary of life on the world wide web. That’s right. I’ve been blogging here for 2 years now! Isn’t it crazy how time flies? I have truly enjoyed carving out and creating this little space to share with the world.
Today’s post is the 192th blog post. And as this blog as grown, so has this blogger. When I look back at the first post ever (pear pie, which is still one of my favorite pies ever by the way), I can see the progress and I’m excited what the future holds for The Cook’s Treat as well. Yes, it has been a fun journey and thanks for joining it with me and for all of your support.
Now about the recipe…
Today I’m excited to share the chocolate version of this homemade vanilla pudding that I posted a year and a half ago. Both versions are made from scratch and sweetened with honey.
You’ve may have noticed we make a lot of honey-sweetened desserts around here. Well, over on that post I talked about my son who has now gone for almost 4 years without eating any sugary treats. For no real reason other than he decided to all on his own. He’s a pretty amazing kid. And has inspired many others with his determination and will power as well.
I get a lot of questions about what he eats since he doesn’t eat sugar. His favorite dessert is actually fresh fruit and sometimes the grocery store checkout person asks me if we have a pet monkey because of how many bananas I buy at once. We try to keep honey-sweetened desserts on hand that we all enjoy as well.
And this homemade chocolate pudding is a big favorite. Whether you are die hard no-sugar-eater or not, you will love it. It is perfectly sweet (without being overwhelmingly so) with a rich chocolate flavor. If you’ve never had homemade pudding, you are missing out. There is something so special about pudding created from scratch. It’s really not hard – totally worth the few more minutes it takes than just opening up a box.
This pudding is thickened with cornstarch so it is gluten free. We’ve also made it dairy free using canned or refrigerated coconut or almond milk and omitting the butter.
How to serve it
This pudding can be eaten warm or cold, plain or dressed up, and any way you choose it is delicious.
For a super, smooth creamy pudding, strain it with a fine-mesh strainer before serving. The lazy girl approach is to just serve it without worrying about straining it, which is what we usually do.
It’s delicious topped with a little whipped cream. The cream offsets the rich chocolate flavor and dresses it up into a lovely dessert. You can also use it as a pie, cake, or trifle filling.
Homemade Chocolate Pudding {Honey-Sweetened}
Smooth and creamy homemade chocolate pudding sweetened with honey instead of sugar. It's delicious served warm or cold, plain or dressed up with whipped cream.
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk divided, see note
- ⅓ cup (4 ounces) raw honey
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch see note
- 5 tablespoons cocoa powder see note
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
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Heat 1 ½ cups of the milk (or cream) and the honey in a medium-sized heavy-duty saucepan over medium-low heat until bubbles just start to form around edges (about 3-5 minutes).
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In a separate medium heat-proof bowl add the remaining ½ cup milk and salt. Slowly whisk in the cornstarch and cocoa powder until mixture is smooth without lumps. Then gently whisk in egg yolk and set aside.
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When milk/honey mixture starts to bubble around the edges, remove from heat and very gradually add it to the cornstarch mixture in the bowl. Whisk quickly and continuously as you slowly pour it in, so that no lumps form.
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Return the mixture back to the saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly with a whisk until it comes to a simmer and begins to thicken (about 4 to 5 minutes). Then cook for one minute longer. Bubbles will pop at the surface of the thickened pudding.
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Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and butter. Strain pudding through a fine mesh strainer to remove any lumps or small pieces of cooked egg, if desired (see note).
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Serve pudding warm or cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface to avoid getting a skin on the pudding. Then refrigerate until chilled. Serve with whipped cream (if desired, see note for sugar free version).
Recipe Notes
1. I usually use whole milk in this recipe, but it is also delicious with half and half or 1 cup milk 1 cup cream (my favorite). We have also made this with canned or refrigerated coconut milk (for dairy free) and it gives a yummy coconut flavor to the pudding. You can also try almond milk. The butter can be omitted in the dairy free variations.
2. You can substitute 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour for the cornstarch.
3. My favorite cocoa powder to use in this recipe is Hershey’s special dark.
4. Straining the pudding is optional. As long as you whisk quickly when you add the hot mixture to the egg mixture you should be able to avoid the lumps and cooked egg pieces. If you are super picky about a smooth texture, go ahead and strain the produce the smoothest, creamiest pudding ever.
5. For a no-sugar whipped cream topping, beat heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Then flavor it with a little vanilla extract and a bit of agave or pure maple syrup. We’ve tried flavoring the whipped cream with honey but since our raw honey is usually crystallized it gets kinda clumpy and doesn’t work quite as well.
Recipe Source: Heather @ The Cook’s Treat
All images and text © The Cook’s Treat
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I have made this several times now. I reduced the honey to 1/4 c and used Dutch process cocoa. So delicious! I tried to freeze some to eat like ice cream. Had to leave it out about 20 minutes and it tasted like a pudding pop! I’m curious how long it keeps in the fridge (using half and half) before going bad? I’m trying to keep this on hand because this is what I want to eat after I deliver my baby (which could be any day now)
Hi Rebekah, congrats on your upcoming baby! I would guess it would keep about a week in the refrigerator. Thanks for sharing your variations, they sound delicious.
I made this today. Was very good. I didn’t quite cook mine long enough as it wasn’t as thick as it should have been. Next time I’d like to try with canned coconut milk. Yum! Do you know if this can be frozen?
Hi Rebekah, glad you liked the recipe. I have never tried freezing it so I’m not sure about that. Let me know if you tried it.
Thanks for the recipe. Very helpful.
May I comment that your very small, and gray font is quite hard for me to read.
You’re welcome and thanks for the feedback on the font.
Hey! So I’m not using any highly refined ingredients for a while and was wondering if I could use whole wheat flour in place of the corn starch instead of all purpose flour?
Hi Ruth, I think that would work just fine. 🙂
Can I use unsweetened geletin instead of cornstarch in the honey chocolate pudding ?
Good question Marilyn. I’m guessing you could experiment with gelatin for sure. I apologize that I am not familiar with a conversion to use unfortunately.
I’m looking for a chocolate pie recipe. How could I turn this into one?
Hi Chad, good question. I do have some chocolate pie recipes on my blog. Search “Chocolate Pie” in the search bar and those should come up. Hope that helps
Do you have your chocolate pudding recipe for one gallon? I’ve got a bunch of grandkids and family coming !
Hi Donna, I’ve never made it more than doubled which makes about 4 cups of pudding. If you want a gallon you would want to multiply each ingredient by 8. It should work if you use a big enough sauce pan but plan on more time for each step. Good luck! And enjoy your family time. 😊