Hasty pudding

The other night I really, really wanted something sweet-creamy-chocolatey, like pudding or ice cream, and didn't feel like actually leaving the house for it. I also didn't have all that many ingredients on hand, or the patience to spend much time on cooking. I did a Google search for "quick chocolate pudding", and voila, this recipe from AllRecipes.com came up. Here's my version:

INGREDIENTS

* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 3 tablespoons cornstarch
* 2 cups milk
* 2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa and cornstarch. Whisk in milk a little at a time so the mixture does not have any dry lumps.
2. Place in the microwave, and cook for 3 minutes on high. Stir, then cook at 1 minute intervals, stirring between cooking times for 2 to 4 minutes, or until shiny and thick. Stir in vanilla. Chill.

That's it! I'm not going to say it's the best chocolate pudding I've ever had - it's not. But it's pretty good, and very, very quick and easy. Changes I made from the original: cut the sugar in half, for starters. I ended up discarding almost the entire first batch because it was gaggingly sweet. Bleh. I also upped the cocoa and vanilla for richer flavor.

The original recipe also had this step:
3. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming

To which I say...why?!? Why would you do that? Why would you kill the skin? The skin is what sets homemade pudding apart from the competition! Don't mess with the skin!

I didn't have any regular milk, so I used powdered and water, which worked just fine. It *might* be cheaper that way, too, not sure. Using the powdered milk, and cooking over a burner of some sort instead of in the microwave...this could be a good pudding to make when the revolution comes...