Warning, X-traordinarily Rich Chocolate Pudding

Sometimes I come across a recipe that is turns out surprisingly good, maybe even fantastic, but rarely shockingly good! That is what happened with this pudding. I was looking for a deep dark chocolate pudding recipe to use in the layered dessert for Thanksgiving. I had not made the layered dessert for many years and it was in needed makeover. When I revisit old recipes, I try to give them a new twist. 

When I found this recipe, I knew this was the one wanted to try, but I wasn't expecting it to knock our socks off!! The smell should have been our first clue that this was a keeper. The kitchen smelled like a chocolate factory, no kidding. Once we took it off the heat we checked it out to make sure it was lump free. It was, thanks to Matt for all the stirring. 

I reached for a small spoon to see if it needed more vanilla and wow, that's when my socks started falling off! I gave Matt a small spoonful and his socks fell off too! We both could not believe the flavor. It was like tasting a great cup of coffee; and the flavor hits every taste bud at once, coating the mouth with a lingering flavor. We started passing around spoons of pudding and we were all ready to dig in and have it for dinner! Forget about saving it for Thanksgiving, there wouldn't be anything left!!

Fortunately, that was just a moment of madness that passed after a couple of hours. We actually ate dinner instead and saved it for Thanksgiving. I used a Belgium dark chocolate and I would suggest that you use a good quality chocolate too. Trader Joe's has excellent chocolate for a very reasonable price. I usually add the chocolate last, after the liquid part of a recipe has been heated, so I wasn't sure about the process of adding the chocolate and then cooking it for the two minutes, but it didn't hurt it at all. I made another change by using whipped sour cream in place of whipped cream. It whips very nicely and I added about a tablespoon of brown sugar to it for some sweetness. It turned out great!!

Enjoy!