chocolate creme pudding

Leah Eskin’s chocolate cream pudding is served in small cups with its own sweetened whipped cream. Bittersweet chocolate with 70 percent cocoa and unsalted butter melt into a cooked heavy-cream-and-yolk mixture.

Broken chocolate and cut-up butter are placed in a bowl beneath a fine-mesh sieve. Heavy cream, three yolks, sugar and kosher salt are whisked together in a saucepan and cooked until thickened and bubbling.

The hot cream mixture is poured through the sieve onto the chocolate and butter. After standing briefly, it is blended or whisked completely smooth, and vanilla is stirred in.

The pudding is poured into six ramekins, cooled to room temperature, covered and refrigerated until completely chilled. A separate portion of heavy cream is beaten with sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form.

The chilled cups are topped with the sweetened whipped cream. Chocolate curls, ground cinnamon and unsweetened cocoa powder can be added as optional finishing touches.