Chocolate Pudding Pops Recipe
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Difficulty: Easy |
Total Time:
30 mins, plus about 3 hrs freezing time
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Makes:
About 10 (2-ounce) pops
Fans of smooth, chocolaty desserts may enjoy chocolate pots de crème or chocolate mousse. Both are delicious but require effort to make and can’t hang around the fridge too long. With these frozen pudding pops you can simply open the freezer anytime for a rich chocolate treat on a stick.
Special equipment: You will need freezer pop molds for this recipe. We used these molds, but any kind will work. If yours don’t come with sticks that attach securely, you can buy wooden sticks and insert them 1 hour into the freezing time.
You will also need an instant-read thermometer for cooking the pudding.
This recipe was featured as part of our Make Your Own Pudding Pops project.
INGREDIENTS
- 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
- 2 cups cold half-and-half
- 2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place the chocolate, sugar, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan over low heat and stir often until the butter and chocolate have melted and the sugar has dissolved, about 6 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the half-and-half in a medium bowl and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the surface. Let stand without disturbing until the gelatin softens, about 3 minutes (it will start to look wavy and wrinkled).
- Slowly whisk the gelatin mixture into the chocolate mixture and whisk continuously until smooth and incorporated. Heat, whisking frequently and checking the temperature occasionally on an instant-read thermometer, until the gelatin dissolves and no longer feels grainy, about 10 minutes. (Do not let the mixture boil or go above 170°F, or the gelatin will not set properly.)
- Transfer the mixture to a blender and add the vanilla. Remove the small cap from the blender lid (the pour lid) and cover the space with a kitchen towel (this allows steam from the hot mixture to escape and prevents the blender lid from popping off). Blend until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate is completely incorporated, about 15 to 30 seconds.
- Divide the mixture among the pop molds and freeze until frozen, about 3 hours. Alternatively, to serve as pudding, divide the mixture among ramekins and refrigerate until set, about 3 hours. (To avoid the skin that forms on the surface of pudding, cover each ramekin with plastic wrap and make sure it’s directly touching the pudding.)
Half and half is ~12% fat cream, commonly used for cooking and in coffee.
The advantage of using half and half instead of half milk, half cream, is that it's homogenized and won't separate while your pudding is chilling.
This recipe wouldn't freeze for me, I wonder what I did wrong. By the way, half and half is equal parts milk and heavy cream.
what is half and half? (not from US so Idk)
Is there an alternative recipe for this using agar agar? It might be less melty, and I say that because I live in southern AZ and less melty is good in a dessert.
I am going to try to health these up a bit. I just joined weight watchers and need to keep in check. I will let you know how these come out.
I'm going to make them. I'm having a sweet attack lately, but I'd like to see an alternative to the gelatin (as in agar agar), not because I'm vegan (aha ha ha not even) but because agar stands up better to nonrefrigerated conditions, and I live in the hot hot desert.
Jello used to sell plastic sticks that fit right into their pudding cups. Just unwrap, put in stick, freeze and remove cup before eating. I wonder if I still have some?
These sound pretty good but at about 185 calories per bar I don't see myself making them very often.