Chocolate Pudding

1. Place the sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt in a heavy-duty saucepan.
2. Whisk the ingredients together. Make sure that there are no clumps in the mixture.
3. Pour the milk into the pan while whisking, slowly.
4. Place the pan over low heat and whisk the mixture slowly.
5. Keep stirring for 10 minutes. The pudding will start to thicken.
6. Whisk for another minute. When the mix comes to a boil, remove from the heat.
7. Add the butter and vanilla, whisking to combine it into the pudding.
8. Pour the pudding into 4 dessert cups. (Or you can pour into a graham cracker crust or a pie crust.)
9. Press plastic wrap onto the pudding surface.
10. Refrigerate for about 2 hours until cooled.
11. Top with whipping cream if desired and serve.

Tip: Carry the pudding to the office or pack in your kid’s Vaya Tyffyn lunch boxes to show off and share. You can be assured that it will still be fresh.

Trivia

• General Foods (Jell-O) introduced chocolate pudding mix in 1934 as "Walter Baker's Dessert". It was renamed "Pickle's Pudding" in 1936. Modern chocolate puddings are usually made with milk and sugar, flavored with chocolate and vanilla, and thickened with a starch such as flour or cornstarch.
• The word pudding is believed to come from the French Boudin, originally from the Latin botellus, meaning "small sausage", referring to encased meats used in medieval European puddings.