Tweetle Dee Design Co.: Old School Chocolate Pudding

Tuesday

Old School Chocolate Pudding

As a child I loved hot school lunches and especially the treats the lunch ladies made for us. I went to school in a small town in upstate New York. All of the grades from kindergarten to 12th were in the same school. We had wooden desks and floors, big stone hallways, small classes and caring teachers. Although I did pull a few pranks on my teachers, I was the kid who put the tacks on the teacher's chair.

Last summer my Aunt gave me a cookbook put together by the women in the town and in it was the Avoca Central School 1950's Chocolate Pudding Recipe. I remembered eating that rich, dense chocolaty treat as a first grader, so I had to make it for my family. It is very different from the chocolate pudding they are used to now, it is more like a very moist lava cake. It is a baked pudding with a thick chocolate sauce on the bottom. Almost like magic the sauce you pour over the top sinks to the bottom and the pudding rises. It will look like a moist cake on top until you spoon it out, oh my. Then the chocolate sauce bubbles out.
It was fabulous. I am sharing it with you in hopes you will enjoy the taste of nostalgia too. My family begged for more and agreed that is the dessert for anyone who loves chocolate.
Avoca Central School's 1950's Chocolate Pudding Recipe
1 Cup of Flour 2 Teaspoon of Baking Powder 2/3 Cup Sugar 2 Tablespoons Cocoa 2/3 Cup Whole Milk 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla 2 Tablespoons of Melted Butter 1 Cup Chopped Nuts
Sauce
1 Cup of Brown Sugar 3 Tablespoons Cocoa 1 1/2 Cup Hot Water
Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, cocoa, milk, vanilla, melted butter and nuts together and pour into a greased 9" x 9" baking dish. Mix the brown sugar and cocoa together and add the hot water. Stir and pour over the pudding mixture that is in the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. As the pudding bakes the pudding rises and the sauces thickens to the bottom.
I hope you enjoy this treat as much as we did.