This recipe was born of the dark arts. The amalgam of chocolate and spices creates a heady brew with hints of burnt sugar and sweet caramel. Chocolate, nutmeg, cinnamon and cayenne pepper come together in a spiced pot de crème. The mixture is then elevated by a drizzle of salted caramel almonds.
The Mayan influence has clearly cast its spell over me after just a brief time in Mexico. The Mayan God of Cocoa, Ek Chuah, is honored in a festival every April with the sacrifice of a cocoa colored dog. The Spaniards noted that priests would pierce their earlobes and let the blood drip on the cocoa as a sacrifice. Sacrificial victims were served cocoa to comfort them in the Mexica region before they were sacrificed in an annual festival. Ixcacao, the Goddess of cocoa was an ancient fertility goddess, an earth goddess in a matriarchal society where gathering crops and seeing to it that everyone was fed was woman’s work. Banishing hunger and providing for the safety and security of the people was her divine responsibility. I can relate to this a little more and I really do believe this is part of a divine responsibility that we all carry out through our actions in the kitchen. As a story teller I am still drawn to the fearsome bloody stories of the darkness and sacrifice. They bring an edgy excitement and keep me from getting trapped by my routine.
I broke my routine the other day. I’d been trying to get to a store during business hours, not as easy as one might think when you work long hours. I left work in the afternoon (only to return and work late) and stopped by my apartment. Guess who I saw?! The woman who moved out from the apartment below mine that I’ve spoken about here and here! She’s a cook and I didn’t know it until she moved out and left all of her wonderful cookbooks behind. I saw her checking her mail in front of the building. We had said hello in passing before so I went up to her and told her that I had found her treasure trove of cookbooks and asked how she liked her new place. She was so excited that someone had put them to good use and told me how hard it was to part with them, but NYC being NYC there isn’t always room for everything. I was right about her being a professional cook. She owns her own catering company. We talked about chefs and recipes and then had to run back to wherever we were running.
The next day she left me a cute hand-written note inviting me over for a bite to eat, drinks and to geek out over food and cooking this weekend. She only moved a block away and is so excited not to have a crooked kitchen anymore. So serendipitous! It’s the magic of the pudding. I’m telling you. Maybe Daniel Boulud will invite me into his kitchen tout suite as was part deux of the fantasy I posted.
But back to the pudding. Go ahead and make it. It is so rich and yet so subtle that it didn’t last long around here. It’s one of those “just one more spoonful” kind of desserts. Maybe it will work its dark magic on you too. Or at least lure you out of your routine long enough for you to begin a new cooking friendship!
SPICY MAYAN CHOCOLATE PUDDING W/ SALTED CARAMEL ALMONDS
Ingredients:
For the pudding
- 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips (if using the fancy kind, then chop it finely)
- 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder
- 3 Tablespoons of corn starch
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 large egg yolks
- 2 1/2 cups whole, 2% or skim milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Scant 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (if possible, use freshly grated)
- 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne or chipotle pepper (for more heat, add 1/8 of each)
For the salted caramel almonds
- 1/2 cup of almonds
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- splash of water
- sea salt crystals or kosher if you don’t have
Directions:
For the Pudding
- In a heat resistant bowl mix the cocoa, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Slowly mix in the cream until it comes together (it’ll be quite thick). Add the eggs and whisk.
- Place the milk and sugar in a pan and heat it up so the sugar dissolves. Bring it to a gentle simmer (careful not to boil it). Remove from heat.
- Slowly whisk in the warm milk over the cocoa/egg mix, don’t pour it all at once or you’ll have scrambled chocolate eggs. Once you have poured the whole thing in, put the pudding mix back into the pot.
- Cook the pudding mix by placing the pot over medium heat – use a wooden spoon to stir and make sure to scrape every corner. Once it comes to a full boil, let it bubble for about 3 minutes and remove from heat.
- While the mix is still hot, add the chocolate chips and vanilla and stir until they are combined.
- Transfer the mix into a bowl and put some plastic wrap onto the surface of the pudding (so it doesn’t get a “skin”). Let it chill.
For the Salted Caramel Almonds
- Place almonds on a tray lined with a parchment paper.
- Make the caramel: place sugar in a pot and add a splash of water (about 3 tablespoons). Turn on the heat on medium and gently swirl here and there. Notice how the bubbles get thicker as it cooks. Once it turns caramel brown (NOT black or light blond), QUICKLY remove from the heat and drizzle over pistachios. You won’t have much time before it turns black. Sprinkle some salt before the caramel cools down.
- Once it’s cold, break it apart into small chunks
Assemble
Get some cups, jars or bowls and add the chilled pudding. I think it tastes best after a day in the fridge. Top with salty caramel almonds chunks. Buen provecho!
Wow, Amanda, the pudding looks and sounds so decadent. I love the use of spices, and salted caramel too. I find it funny that you Americans use the expression “pot de crème” which doesn’t exist in French!
How wonderful that a tiny change in your schedule allowed you to meet your former neighbor, and how lovely of her to invite you over. Living in a large city, people tend to not talk to new people and don’t allow themselves to make random acquaintances, so it is nice to see that it still can happen!
Thank you, Darya. That is a funny little linguistic thing. I saw you talking about that with Ken a few months ago! This pudding is fab because of the spices! I’m really excited to hang out with my former neighbor. She actually said if I wanted to help her cater an event she could always use help. That might actually be fun. I’d even be part of the wait staff 🙂 I hope you’re doing well!
Oh that would be fun! I bet you’d enjoy that!
what a great story! how random that you came home, ran into her and now you have plans to meet up. i am such a fan of chocolate pudding, though my recipe calls for just two ingredients, i like yours for it’s use of egg yolk which adds an even creamier depth. and then of course, the addition of heat takes it to a new level. i dig that.
Thanks so much, Lan! Really good stuff this week. The yolks really add to this. I love pudding too. I had a thought of making this a filling in a cake. That would be outrageous. I’ll have to fill you in on how Sunday goes with my new friend 🙂
Beautiful recipe and one my husband would drool over. I am not a fan ot dark chocolate or sweet things but he is a huge fan. I may have to make this for him.
Love the story about the cookbooks.
Thanks so much, Jovina! I love dark chocolate, but not so much sweet things. This is more rich than sweet. I wish I could send you a batch of it. The caramel almonds add an extra wonderfulness. I hope you’re doing well!
Amanda, what can I say, this is such an enticing pudding, dark, mysterious, intense and grown up. I always regret not having been to Mexico when just a drive south was all it took. Salted caramel almonds make it simply irresistible! + How great that you got to talk to the mystery cook, serendipitous indeed my friend. Big hug, Nicole.
Thanks, Nicole! Always great to hear from you. So jealous of a short drive to Mexico. I have such an affinity for the place. Work is threatening to send me there for a few months, which would be cool, but months??? I am excited to cook and drink with my neighbor! So crazy how things work out sometimes. Hope you’re doing well! xo
Well, now it is about half way round the world but when in CA, it would have been – I had a whole round trip planned in my head: Mexico City, then via Oaxaca, Tabasco to Yucatan, eating our way from Mayan site to Aztek site to the greatest taco places on Earth and then really bad weather struck as well as the realization that driving thousands of miles around Mexico might take a little longer then imagined… But hey, a few months in Mexico, super cool! They go by so quickly and when ever do you get another chance like that? I am well, starting a nasty cold, I think which my husband caught on the plane to/from Japan – not happy & now slightly greenish with food & cultural envy of someone who might be going to Mexico. Do you know where? xo to you, too.
Ha, nice you get to share some food time with the neighbour who so intrigued you for a while – I’d love find out whether you confessed she’s became a bit-part celebrity on your blog world 😉
That dessert sounds divine. ‘Pudding’ doesn’t exist over here in the way it does in the US – what does the texture end up like? Ganache-y? Or softer?
Interesting, Karinna! It’s like a mousse…softer than a ganache, maybe a little less rich. It’s so interesting the way food develops around the world. As for my new friend, I did tell her that I wrote about her and directed her to one of the posts. I’m sure she thinks I’m crazy, but still invited me over nonetheless. I really think if she still lived in the building I would never have spoken to her…it’s too close. One block away I can do. It’s a very New York thing to happen! Thanks as always for your thoughtful comment.
Man! Your are a great storyteller!!
I can practically taste this Amanda!
The richness of it all, defined even more by your awesome pictures really makes this item speak to me.
Well done woman!
Thanks, Dana! That means a lot.
Wow, how brilliant to meet your mystery chef properly – I hope it’s the start of beautiful friendship.
I love the día de los muertos action going on in the background (the icon on my hard drive is one of those Mexican skulls). I think that’s the kind of pudding I’d really enjoy. I could get addicted to salted almonds on their own 😉
So great to hear from you, MD. Really? That’s your icon? I’m obsessed with the symbols. I came home from Mexico with skulls. LOL. This is a fab pudding. If you were here, I’d certainly share. I’ll let you know how it goes over the weekend! Crazy right?!
Yes, really – a few years ago I found a set of Dia de los Muertos icons with 3 painted skulls! I hope your mystery chef meeting goes well – I wish I had one in my building 🙂
I have to tell you how this meeting with my neighbor went! It was awesome. I’ve got a recipe to share from it 🙂
Cool – I’m all ears 🙂
Well I’ll write a post about it, but she’s a reallllly good cook. She’s inspired me to learn how to debone chickens and hens. And she read my blog so challenged me to a pizza battle. She also made dessert and offered me a job with her catering company when things pick up. I told her I can’t leave my day job yet, but I will definitely help out and learn everything she has to teach.
How fantastic! I did some catering in Atlanta and it’s quite relaxing in comparison to cooking in a restaurant. You should blog the pizza challenge – that would be great 😉
Interesting. It sounds like fun. Perhaps I will 🙂
You can plan what you are doing when it comes to catering, but in a restaurant you are at the whim of the customers 🙂
You make me want to book a flight to Mexico immediately (as long as there are no brown dog sacrifices involved). The pudding looks delicious. And I love the New Yorker-esque saga of you and the former neighbor. Can’t wait to read the next installment!
Thanks so much, Michelle. You’re too kind. I’m really digging your latest recipes. What I wouldn’t do for a rabbit. I’ll keep you updated about my neighbor!
Hubby loves dark chocolate.. Guess he will love it
Aww thanks. I’d send some over to you, though you make some fantastic desserts!
You are so humble dear:-)
Amanda, this is a very nice recipe. Like the salted caramel almonds on the top and the dark chocolate, delicious combination. I’m happy you met your mysterious neighbor 🙂
Great stuff! (And I’m glad, for the moment, it’s sitting in your kitchen and not mine – I have enough killer temptations in my life.) I like your final photo the best. Ken
Thank you so much, Ken. It’s great to see you! I ate the whole thing :\
..better get on the bike… 🙂
Those salted caramel almonds look divine! You are making me want to go to Mexico.
Thank you! I actually think i ruined my pan making them. … worth it!
I believe it that it was worth it!
I’m so excited you met cookbook lady!!!!! That is just so meant to be. And you actually sat down to share food and drink. The universe is good 🙂 And so is your pudding. Egads. 😀
Ha! Thank you, Liz! I’m excited about it too. Such a funny thing! I have a feeling we will totally geek it about all things food!
Absolutely stunning post – eveything about it…..the photos, the recipe, the story! How exciting to have made a new cooking pal. we look forward to hearing how it goes!
Thanks so much, Chica. You’re too kind. I can’t wait to update everyone! It’ll be so fun.
Emmmm,….
look delicious
thank for share
Thank you! !