You’ve seen the flashes of green wherever you go by now, I’m sure. A sign or two at a local business. A couple of shelves at the local WalMart (only a couple, must keep all others for Easter after all). That’s right, it’s time for that short-lived holiday, St. Patrick’s Day! In all honesty I wasn’t thinking about this recipe in terms of food blogging specifically for St. Paddy’s. We were looking for something easy, as usual, and yummy, even more usual. Yes, it’s really just about what our taste buds and level of cooking endurance lead us to around here, and this time it led us to chocolate and booze. We are neither surprised nor sad about this!

Have you ever made homemade chocolate pudding? It’s one of the easiest treats to make from scratch and it knocks the boxed kind right out of the water. While we went with whole milk here, you could certainly go with lesser fat ingredients in yours.

Just be sure to get some good chocolate, something like the Ghirardelli seen above, or Lindt or other such higher quality chocolate. That’s where the big difference is made in this stuff and you don’t even need an entire bar so it won’t be expensive. And you can nibble on the one or two squares leftover.

The first order of business is to stir. Stir, stir, stir before you do any actual cooking. Most of the ingredients are combined first, including the egg yolk.

It’s a little hard to tell in our picture, but at this point, the initial mixture has thickened to a rich pudding consistency, and looks like your standard vanilla pudding. It took us about ten minutes on the stove top to get to this state. Now you add in the Bailey’s liqueur. Mmmm!

At this point I dropped in the chopped chocolate for Sis Blogging Partner but by the time I could snatch up the camera again it had already melted into the mixture. This pudding means business! At this point, we spooned it into individual serving dishes and covered them with plastic wrap to cool in the fridge.

This is, almost needless to say, incredibly rich stuff. Even I, a self-professed Champion of Sweets, only needs a few spoonfuls to admit it’s rich. Fortunately it’s also sinfully delicious stuff, so there’s no problem tucking it away to finish off later. Whether you’re looking for something quick and easy to celebrate St. Paddy’s or you just want something quick, easy and yummy to treat yourself to, this will certainly do the trick!

Chocolate Pudding with Baileys

from My Baking Addiction, who found it at Food.com

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: about 10 minutes Level: Easy Serves: 4

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 1/2 cup cream (light or whipping)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/3 cup Baileys Irish Cream (or other such liqueur)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 ounces chocolate, chopped

In a medium saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch, whisking to thoroughly incorporate. Add milk and whisk until dry ingredients are dissolved. Next, whisk in the egg yolk and cream.

Place the pan over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a full boil and thickens. This takes about ten minutes.

As soon as the mixture thickens, remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the Baileys Irish Cream and vanilla.

Add chocolate and whisk until it is melted and smooth.

Pour pudding into individual serving dishes. Let the pudding cool slightly then cover the tops with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Garnish with fresh whipped cream and chocolate curls.

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