Making (and scorching) pudding for Groundhog’s Day

“I think the groundhog will turn around and go back into his den,” Times Leader taste tester and columnist Bill O’Boyle said earlier this week — and he wasn’t talking about the possibility of Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow.

No, Bill was referring to the somewhat scorched flavor of the homemade pudding that formed the base of my test kitchen creation this week — 10 little “groundhogs” each crafted from a cookie with marshmallows for teeth and M&M candies for ears.

Actually, each groundhog ear was supposed to be half an M&M, according to the photo posted on a blog called “The Best Ideas for Kids.”

I’d never tried cutting an M&M in half before, and it wasn’t easy.

But then, I’d already made this project more difficult than it had to be by deciding to make homemade pudding. The online instructions for the groundhog snack/craft suggested using ready-made pudding that comes in a plastic cup. That’s the groundhog’s little earthen burrow. And you can cover it with flakes of coconut, tinted green with food coloring to look like grass.

And you can give each groundhog a face.

I’ll admit my groundhogs’ ears — which I attached to the cookies using a dab of Nutella as cement — seemed to have morphed into eyebrows. And most of the little critters seemed to be suffering from bloodshot eyes.

Nonetheless, they had a certain big-toothed appeal.

“I appreciate the presentation,” page designer Lyndsay Bartos said, laughing and just shaking her head over the flavor.

“I do think they’re cute,” page designer Ashley Bringmann said. “But the burnt pudding taste was off-putting.”

Oddly enough, not everyone minded — or even really seemed to notice — that burned flavor.

“The pudding is good,” sports page designer Mitch Hall said. “Now that you mention it I guess it tastes a little like dark chocolate … or coffee flavor.”

“The pudding’s really good,” said reporter Kevin Carroll. “I guess it has a little bit of a bitter flavor. But it’s not something I’d complain about.”

“I think it’s really good, nice and chocolately,” reporter Jen Lean-Andes said. “The coconut adds a nice touch.”

“But somehow I managed to burn it,” I pointed out. “I think it tastes scorched.”

“Don’t tell people,” Jen advised.

But, eventually, I told everybody.

“If the pudding wasn’t burned,” news editor Roger DuPuis said, “I think I’d really like this.”

So my final count was: Jen, Mitch and Kevin liking or at least not minding the burnt pudding; Roger, Bill, Ashley and Lyndsay considering the dish ruined.

As for Mark and me, we both noticed a certain campfire flavor in the pudding but, happy campers that we are, we ate it anyway.

“Didn’t you keep stirring?” my fellow test cook asked. “Any time you heat sugar you’ve got to keep stirring!”

“Well, I tried to keep stirring,” I said. “I’ll have to try harder next time.”

My problem may have been that I was using a recipe that said you could use sugar, maple syrup or honey, whatever you wanted, and I had some wildflower honey in the cupboard that I wanted to use up. That honey wasn’t exactly flowing smoothly and it seemed to take quite a while to dissolve into the milk. I suspect that may have contributed to my problem.

Other little snags in the creation of my groundhog snacks were that my neighborhood supermarket was fresh out of Nutter Butter sandwich cookies, so I used chocolate BelVita biscuits instead. Also, there were no “googly eyes” to be found in the baking aisle, so I made my own from bits of marshmallow and M&Ms — with the result that my groundhogs’ eyes appear to be somewhat lacking in symmetry.

Their M&M ears weren’t exactly in tip-top shape, either.

“They look like they’ve gone three rounds with Mike Tyson,” Bill O’Boyle said.

OK, all of the above happened on Tuesday. On Wednesday, just to prove to the taste testers — and myself — that I can make homemade pudding without burning it, I made a fresh batch of chocolate pudding and, without adding cookie groundhogs, took it to the newsroom.

“Now that’s pudding!” Bill said.

“This is so much better,” Roger said. “It reminds me of pudding my grandmother used to make.”

“It’s good,” Lyndsay said. “Your redemption is here.”

“It does taste better,” Kevin said. “Not that I had any complaints yesterday.”

If you want to assemble these crafty little groundhogs, gentle readers, I wouldn’t blame you if you use ready-made pudding. If you want to make your own, here is the recipe I followed, from chocolatecoveredkatie.com/.

And, remember, keep stirring!

CHOCOLATE PUDDING

2 cups milk of choice OR canned coconut milk

heaping 1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup dutch cocoa powder

1/3 cup sweetener (sugar, pure maple syrup, erythritol, or honey)

1/2 cup milk of choice + 3 tablespoons cornstarch

optional 3 ounces chocolate chips or broken-up bar

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions: Heat the 2 cups milk of choice in a saucepan with the salt, cocoa powder, and sweetener. Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch and 1/2 cup milk in a small bowl until dissolved. When the 2 cups milk are warm, add the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil. Once boiling, stir constantly for 2 minutes. Lower to a simmer for an additional minute, then turn off the heat. Once the heat is off, stir in the vanilla and broken-up chocolate pieces until the chocolate melts. Transfer the pudding to the refrigerator to thicken. It gets thicker the longer it sits and will be ready to consume after a few hours or overnight.