White Chocolate Pudding

This pudding is incredibly easy to make. And so delicious that I couldn’t even wait until dinner tonight to have some of the leftovers, but instead ate it at lunch. I’m sure I’ll be sorry later when I see Eric enjoying his and there is none left for me. I added just a touch of lemon zest for a lemon-white chocolate version. It was the perfect background flavor and didn’t overpower the velvety smooth white chocolate. Definitely not a low-fat dessert, but paired with a light dinner I think it’s perfect.

Originally I wanted to garnish the pudding with raspberries. The grocery store was sold out, so pistachios it was. Pistachios are one of my favorite nuts. Recently I had some pistachio gelato and ever since have been inspired to use pistachios in a dessert. While this isn’t a pistachio based dessert, they added a nice touch – both in flavor and in presentation.

Also? While Wal-mart is one of my least favorite places to shop, I did happen upon these cute little dessert dishes that were perfect for the pudding. At only two or so dollars a piece, you can’t really go wrong with that.

White Chocolate Pudding
adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Double-Chocolate Pudding

• 2 Tbs cornstarch
• 2 /3 c sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 c half and half
• 1/2 c heavy cream
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 c whole milk
• 6 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 Tbs butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• whipped cream
• chopped pistachios
• shaved white chocolate

Sift the cornstarch, sugar, and salt into a medium, heavy bottomed sauce pan. Slowly whisk in the half and half, heavy cream, followed by the yolks. Next, whisk in the milk and white chocolate.

Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring gently but constantly with a wooden spoon, until the pudding coats the spoon very thickly, 1 1/2 – 2 minutes.

Stir in butter and vanilla. Divide into 6 dessert dishes and refrigerate at least 3 hours, or up to 2 days. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and garnish with chopped pistachios and shaved white chocolate.

variation: for a Lemon-White Chocolate Pudding, add the zest of 1/2 a lemon at the time you add the white chocolate.

Reminder:
Have you entered the Circle of Helping Hearts giveaway yet? You have until Midnight PST 3/27 to get those entries in.