Easter Chocolate Pudding

Here's a five-minute Easter dessert sure to please children and adults.  This old-fashioned chocolate pudding can literally be put together in minutes with everyday ingredients -- milk, chocolate, sugar, salt, butter, cornstarch and salt.

This is a godsend for those pressed for time, like me.  At our house, we're celebrating both Passover and Easter tomorrow (the DD calls it Peaster), so between the brisket, the chicken soup and ham, I was looking for a really easy dessert.

Chop one square (one ounce) of unsweetened chocolate.  Melt it in 1/2 cup of milk.

Heat the remaining milk in a two-quart saucepan and add the melted chocolate mixture.  Next, add the dry ingredients (which you've sifted together).  Cook until thick -- it took less than five minutes.

Pour into small custard cups.  The recipe says five, but I filled just four.  I guess in the 1940s, when this recipe card was written, portion sizes (and the average American weight) were much smaller (and lower) than they are today.  Refrigerate until cold.

Now, the fun begins.  Form nests using sweetened coconut (like Baker's) and fill each with three jelly beans. I used the Jelly Belly brand, but any will do.

This recipe card is from one of the very first boxes I purchased in Akron.  I always avoided this recipe, since it was thickened only with cornstarch and lacked eggs, which add richness.  If you want to really guild the lily, you can use this richer pudding recipe, though this simpler one is quite nice, and easier on the waistline.