Dessert: Chocolate Malt Pudding

I'm going to put this out there: pudding is really easy to make. This chocolate pudding takes about 10 minutes. You can serve it right out of the pan warm, or you can refrigerate it and serve it cold. I like to use high quality chocolate, as the chocolate makes up the majority of ingredients of this dish.

• 1/4 cup malted milk powder (Ovaltine works)
• 5 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 1/4 cups half and half
• 4 oz semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Malted milk balls, for toppings

Whisk together malted milk powder, sugar, cornstarch in pan. Whisk in 1/2 cup of the half and half until it's smooth. Add the remaining half and half and cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly until it thickens. (this happens pretty dramatically, and the mixture will take the consistency of pudding)


Remove the pan from heat and add in the chocolate. You can serve it now or put it in the fridge. Easy peasy.

This is a pretty cheap dessert, depending on the type of chocolate you purchase.

Carrot Nut Bread

Another classic recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Making bread satisfies all kinds of food requirements: breakfast, snacks, maybe even dessert. This one makes me feel kind of healthy as it uses carrots and either pecans or walnuts. You'll need a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup grated carrots (a food processor with the right attachments makes this easy to do)
  
• 1 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, blend sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla and salt. Stir in the dry ingredients. Then, mix in with a few strokes the carrots and pecans.


Pour batter into greased loaf pan. Bake until the bread pulls away from the sides (for me, that was about an hour). Cool the bread in the rack for about 10 minutes before taking it out of the pan and cutting.

I topped this with cream cheese frosting and left over pecans, but it is also good alone.