I was inspired to try this out by following the trail of a LifeHacker blog post on making macaroni and cheese in a coffee mug to The Family Kitchen blog. My eye was caught by a side panel link to "Microwave Chocolate Peppermint Pudding in 5 Minutes!. I did store the URL away but then when I went to make it, I couldn’t be bothered to check my stash and came up with “Chocolate-Peppermint Pudding” at the FatFree Vegan Kitchen. My final recipe was an adaptation of the latter and took more than 5 minutes, but not much longer. The result is something that tastes an awful lot like After Eight mints! Note that this is gluten-free and can be vegan.

Time & Results

• Preparation time: 5 – 10 minutes
• Cooking time: 5 – 10 minutes
• Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch ([1])
• 250 ml (¼ cup) sugar [2]
• 375 ml (1 ½ cups) milk [3]
• 1.25 ml (quarter teaspoon) peppermint extract
• Peppermint sticks for garnish (optional)

Preparation

1. In a 1-litre (4-cup) microwavable bowl, blend the cocoa powder, cornstarch, and sugar together.
2. Slowly, while stirring well, mix in the milk. Stir until most of the cocoa powder seems blended in. Some may seem to remain but this will mix in during cooking.
3. Microwave on high power for 1 -minute, then stir well.
4. Repeatedly heat for 30 seconds and stir until the mixture boils, watching carefully to ensure it doesn’t boil over. The mixture will gradually thicken as it cooks.
5. When it boils, heat it for another 30 seconds, stopping the microwave if it threatens to boil over.
6. Add the peppermint extract, stir the pudding well, and ladle into 2 serving bowls.
7. Garnish with peppermint sticks, if desired.

Notes

1. Cornstarch is known as “cornflour” in the United Kingdom.  ↩

2. I used caster (raw) sugar, but regular white granulated sugar would be fine. FatFree Vegan Kitchen suggests you can halve the sugar and add 2 tablespoons of stevia or other sweetener instead.  ↩

3. To make this vegan, use fat-free soymilk, rice milk, or any other non-dairy milk.  ↩

Personal Notes

The FatFree Vegan Kitchen notes you can experiment with other flavours, like orange extract or even peanut butter, or even cook it on the stove. I didn’t try any of those variations. I did, however, put my pudding in the fridge to cool. The consistency later seemed a little rubbery. Perhaps I should have left it to cool to room temperature? Nevertheless, it was tasty!

China Moon Ten-Spice

Makes 3/4 cup

This recipe is taken from China Moon Cookbook by Barbara Tropp (©1992) Why have ten spices instead of five? To quote Barbara Trollop, cookbook author, “I can’t say, except to suggest that the result is doubly good.”

Ingredients: Whole Spices

• 2 tablespoons fennel seeds
• 10 star anise, broken into points
• 2 tablespoons Szechwan peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 3/4 teaspoon whole cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1.5 teaspoons black peppercorns

Ingredients: Ground Spices

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Preparation

1. Toast the whole spices together in a small dry skillet over low heat, stirring and adjusting the heat so that the spices toast without burning. Stir until the spices are fully fragrant and the fennel seeds and lighter-coloured spices are lightly browned, and 5 minutes. Stir in the ground spices.
2. Using a spice grinder or a clean coffee grinder, grind the mixture finely. Store in a tightly covered jar.

Personal Notes

I have to admit that I haven’t tried this yet. I don’t have a spice grinder anymore either. I had an old-fashioned hand-kranked coffee grinder that I’d bought at a flea market in Zürich, but it’s still in Zürich. Perhaps I’ll have to ask my friend there to ship it back to me. It would be great for this. In the meantime, I’ll try it with a mortar and pestle.</p