Chocolate pudding is a favorite around my house, so when I saw a hundred-year-old recipe for it (with the twist of topping the pudding with meringue), I just had to give it a try.
The Chocolate Meringue Pudding was rich and creamy, and had just the right amount of sweetness. The delicate and airy meringue with its distinctive crispy exterior almost melted in my mouth and worked well with the chocolatey pudding.
Except for the ubiquitous Lemon Meringue Pie, I seldom see desserts today with meringue toppings. It seems strange to me that meringue seems to be somewhat out of style when it is such a delightful dessert topping.
Meringue looks like it would be hard to make, but it actually is very easy. It only takes a few minutes to beat the egg whites into stiff peaks with an electric mixer, and it is easy to pile the meringue on top of a dessert – and it always looks awesome after the meringue has been lightly browned in the oven. Cooks a hundred years ago would have typically beaten the egg whites by hand or used a hand mixer. It would have taken much longer to beat the egg whites back then – but meringue was more popular back then. Go figure.
Here’s the original recipe:
This recipe makes a relatively small amount of pudding, and was the perfect amount for my husband and me.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Chocolate Meringue Pudding
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons corn starch
1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate (2 1/2-ounce squares)
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350° F. Put 1/2 cup milk and the cornstarch in a small bowl; stir until combined and smooth. Put the remaining 2 1/2 cups of milk and the baking chocolate in a saucepan. Using medium heat scald the milk while stirring constantly. Gradually add the cornstarch mixture while continuing to stir. Reduce heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes while stirring constantly. (It is important to stir to the bottom of the pan and to keep the temperature low to avoid scorching the pudding at the bottom of the pan.) Remove from heat.
Put egg yolks in a small bowl and beat with a whisk or fork until smooth. Place a small amount (approximately 1 – 2 tablespoons) of the hot mixture into dish with the beaten egg; stir quickly, then gradually add the egg combination to the hot mixture while stirring rapidly. (The egg yolks are first combined with a little of the hot mixture to prevent them from turning into scrambled eggs when introduced into the hot combination.) Reserve 2 tablespoons of the powdered sugar, then add the remaining sugar and salt into the hot mixture; stir to combine. Put the mixture in a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.
In the meantime, make the meringue. Place egg whites in a bowl, and beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Gradually add the 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and vanilla while continuing to beat.
Remove pudding from oven and spoon the meringue on top and swirl decoratively. Return to oven and cook for an additional 8-10 minutes or until the meringue is lightly browned. Can be served hot or cold.
Looks yummy! My mother would make meringue when we were young and I remember when she beat it by hand. She would sometimes make meringue cookies and they were delicious!
mmm. . . the meringue cookies sound wonderful. Your mother must have had a lot of patience to beat the whites by hand.
I bet this tastes a little like a s’more!
hmm. . . I hadn’t thought about it, but now that you mention it, there are some similarities, though the texture is different.
I think the meringues where more popular then because more people had chickens in the yard and not so many cows.
This looks great. Gonna fix it today and not even going to save it for a desert!
That makes sense. When I was growing up we had a few chickens, and there definitely were times during the year when the chickens laid lots and lots of eggs, and we had difficulty figuring out how to use them all. I hope that you enjoyed the pudding.
Chocolate pie with meringue, coconut cream pie with meringue, banana pudding with meringue were all staples at our house, particularly Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mother was a pie Queen.
The desserts around your house sound wonderful. When my mother made a dessert, she often made cakes, while my mother-in-law loved making pies. I learned a lot from my mother-in-law about how to make a nice pie.
I have Mom’s recipes, but they are not like Mom’s! My sister got the pie genes. 🙂
It’s so difficult to replicate old favorites. I’m still trying to learn how to crimp the edge of a pie as beautifully as my mother-in-law did.
Now that’s a little a little piece of flavor heaven!
It was yummy.
I love chocolate pudding. This has got to be better than the one bowl stuff from Jello
lol
There’s no comparison between the boxed pudding mixes and homemade pudding.
Yummy!
It’s tasty.
Maybe cooks today don’t want to separate eggs?
That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought of that, but I bet you’re right that many cooks today don’t want (or know how to) separate eggs.
This sounds like a chocolate blancmange recipe, plus the meringue on top! Nicely old-fashioned.
cheers
sherry
They’re similar, though I think that blancmanges generally contain some gelatin, and often are molded.