Baking sometimes takes you down a path from one treat to another because you have leftover ingredients. In most cases, you can find another use for your leftovers – those egg yolks left over from your coconut macaroons can be made into lemon curd, and the rest of the evaporated milk from your pumpkin pie can become fudge. These triple vanilla cupcakes left me with a bowl full of cupcake cores, and I immediately thought: trifle, with chocolate pudding and whipped cream.
This chocolate pudding recipe, which came from Hershey’s Kitchens, is incredibly easy to make. I chose to make miniature chocolate trifles and placed them in footed dessert bowls, which were just the perfect serving size.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/4 cups milk
- 2 tablespoons butter, cut into cubes
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- whipped cream and cupcake cores, if making trifles
Preparation
In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt. Mix well with a fork to combine.
Slowly pour in milk, stirring constantly to combine and taking care to break up any lumps of dry ingredients.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils. Be sure to scrape the bottom of your pan regularly to prevent scorching – I use a small rubber spatula when stirring mixtures like this to really scrape the bottom well.
Once the mixture comes to a boil, continue boiling and stirring for 1 minute, then remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla until butter completely melts.
Pour into a medium-sized heatproof bowl and press plastic wrap against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until set and completely cold, about 4 hours.
To make the trifles, place cupcake cores in the bottom of your serving dish. Top with chocolate pudding, then whipped cream. If you’re making one large trifle, repeat for several layers to fill your dish; if you’re making single-serving trifles, just use one layer of each.
Serve immediately.
amy bakes in the 'burgh 