Domesticity Nouveau

Friday, November 4, 2011

Spiced Chocolate Pumpkin Custard

After a few days of pumpkin custard, I was wanting chocolate pudding.  Good Chocolate pudding.  Not just a “healthy” attempt at chocolate pudding.

I really didn’t want to disrupt my lazy and create something new, so I worked with what was already great, the pumpkin custard recipe.  I was hoping that chocolate was a strong enough flavor to dominate the pumpkin and coconut.  Thankfully it is!  I was worried that this would be a strange combo, but it is surprisingly perfectly chocolaty... mmmmmmmmm, chocolate, mmmmmmmm....

Spiced Chocolate Pumpkin Custard

Sugar-free, Dairy-free, Gluten-free

Ingredients 
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp kosher flake salt
3/8 tsp stevia extract powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
15 oz can pumpkin puree
14 oz can coconut milk
Optional: pinch of ground chipotle

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix cocoa powder, cinnamon, salt, stevia powder, and chipotle if using,  in small dish, set aside.  Beat eggs and vanilla in large bowl, stir in pumpkin and spices.  Stir in coconut milk.  Place Six 4oz ramekins, lightly greased with coconut oil, in baking dish and fill with custard mix.  Pour 1 inch boiling water into baking dish around ramekins and bake at 350 degrees  for 25 minutes, until still a bit wobbly in the center.  Remove from oven and immediately take out of the water bath and set on a rack to cool.  Serve warm or chilled, with or without a dusting of cinnamon.

I’m going to refer you to the original Pumpkin Custard post for the majority of today’s questions and answers, but there are a few points that deserve attention...

The original recipe I came up with mimicked a pumpkin pie recipe in starting at one oven temperature and then reducing to a lower temperature part way through cooking.  This is WAY too complicated for this lazy cook, so I took a gamble and went for one temperature for the entire cooking time.  The gamble paid out and this is soooo much easier! 

I boosted the stevia just a wee bit to accommodate for the bitterness of cocoa powder.  Combined with the natural sweetness of the coconut milk and pumpkin there is a perfect balance.  Of course, we don’t eat a lot of sweet foods and haven’t had sugar for most of this year, so our palettes may be different than those that are accustomed to a lot of sweet.  If you are using an alternative sweetener, such as honey or sugar or maple syrup, etc, you will want to start with 1/3 cup, taste and adjust as needed.

I’m thinking next I might switch this chocolate version up a bit with orange extract or zest, or maybe some almond extract and toasted almond slivers, or maybe some fresh raspberries, or.... so many chocolate possibilities!

Happy Cooking!

5 comments:

  1. can we use this cooking method with the normal pumpkin custard recipe?

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  2. Absolutely! Either method will work for either recipe. Happy Cooking!

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Looks easy & yummy! Adding it to the menu for the w/end.

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