Mrs. Rorer's Chocolate Blanc Mange

I had a hankering to try a new recipe, and had some milk to use up, so I spent way too long looking for a simple blanc mange recipe.  There are a lot of them.  Blanc Mange goes way back to when it was a main dish of rice and chicken cooked in almond milk, to various forms as it changes to become the corn flour/corn starch recipe of today.   There are a lot of mid 19th century recipes using egg whites as an addition, but not necessarily cooked.   I found several fancy recipes for a layered pudding and finally found this simple recipe, for what is basically a moulded chocolate pudding, in a fairly modern form.

Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, 1902

This was a simple recipe.  I'll admit I used the microwave instead of a double boiler, but it worked.  

Ingredients -  

1 pint milk (2 cups)

4 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp corn starch or corn flour

2 oz chocolate

chop the chocolate.   Mix the milk and sugar together and stir to dissolve.   Heat until almost boiling and remove 1/2 cup of the milk and set it aside.   Into the small portion of milk, add the corn starch and stir until mixed in completely.   Add the chopped chocolate to the rest of the milk and heat until the chocolate melts, stirring until it is well blended.  Add the milk/cornstarch mixture back into the pot, and heat it up until it thickens and just starts to boil.   Stir constantly so it doesn't burn.   Pour into dishes or a prepared mould.

I used standard bakers chocolate. I think using chocolate rather than cocoa may have helped it firm up to be a mouldable pudding.   If I had to substitute cocoa, I'd add 1 or 2 tablespoons of sugar, and a bit more cornstarch to make up for this.

Using a double boiler minimises the risk of burning, and if you don't have an official double boiler pot, just stick a not melting mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water.   Stainless works well, but a quality glass one should be fine too.  Just don't use plastic.  I used a glass bowl in the microwave.  I set it on high for 3 minutes to heat up, removed the portion of milk and added the chocolate, set it at 1 minute and stirred after each time.  It took less than 3 minutes melt and stir in the chocolate.  I added the reserved milk/cornstarch mixture and heated it for another 2 minutes until it was thick.   If you undercook the cornstarch it will taste a bit raw and starch.  Fully cooked, it's nice, thick and a bit creamy.

Iused little cups for moulds.   This makes about 2.5 cups of pudding, so a proper pudding mould in that size would be very effective for a display piece.   I stuck the cups in the fridge to cool.  It didn't take too long before I could tip the pudding out onto the plate.  I didn't serve it with cream or milk, but a bit of whipped cream on top would be a lovely addition.

It's a nice, simple and easy pudding.  The ability to mould this makes it suitable for a fancy presentation.  Definitely a recipe to use again.