Quick Chocolate Pudding

John's favorite dessert is chocolate pudding. I love that I can make his favorite dessert quickly from scratch with ingredients I have on hand. I got the original recipe from allrecipes and only changed it by adding butter.

Ingredients

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 Tablespoon butter (optional)

Combine sugar cocoa powder and cornstarch in a large microwave safe bowl (I use my extra large 4 cup measure). Sift the cocoa powder if there are clumps. Whisk in milk slowly and make sure there are no clumps. Microwave on high for 3 minutes.

Stir and continue microwaving at one minute intervals until thick and shiny, about 2-4 minutes. Keep an eye on it to be sure it doesn't over flow.

Remove from microwave and add optional butter and vanilla. Stir and refrigerate with plastic wrap on top touching the pudding.

Of course more fat (whole milk and butter) makes it taste better (richer, smoother). But I've made this with 2 % milk and no butter and it's still great.