Chocolate Biscuit Pudding

We Maldivians sure love our layered biscuit puddings. The recipe below creates an intensely chocolaty one. Feel free to use milk chocolate instead of dark if you’d like things less chocolaty and also adjust the sugar to your liking.

Ingredients:

• 100 grams dark chocolate (we used Lindt 70% cocoa)
• ½ cup full cream milk (to mix with corn flour)
• ¼ cup corn flour
• 2 ½ cups full cream milk (for the pudding)
• 1 can condensed milk (380g)
• 2/3 cups cocoa powder
• 1 ½ tbsp. butter
• 6 tbsp. sugar (or to taste)
• 1 cup full cream milk (for soaking the biscuits)
• 2 tsp. instant coffee (optional)
• 1 Marie biscuit packet (400g)

Instructions:

1. Chop the chocolate in to chunks and set aside.
2. Combine ½ cup milk and ¼ cup corn flour in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Add 2 ½ cups milk, condensed milk, cocoa powder, butter and sugar to a large pot. Heat the mixture on medium heat while stirring until the sugar dissolves and everything is well combined. Have a taste and add more sugar if you’d like.
4. Add the corn flour and milk mixture to the pot along with the chocolate chunks. Cook the mixture while stirring until it thickens and looks silky. Set aside.
5. Add 1 cup milk to a container. Add the instant coffee if using and give it a good mix.
6. Dip the Marie biscuits into the milk, one at a time to soak them. Be careful not to soak them to the point that they break, we only need to make the biscuits slightly soft.
7. As you remove the biscuits from the milk, arrange them in the tray or whatever container you are using, to form the first layer. You might need to break some biscuits to make sure the entire bottom of the container is covered. (We used a 20 cm square tray and were able to get three layers, so our instructions are for a pudding with three layers. You might need to make adjustments based on the size of container you are using.)
8. Spoon a third of the chocolate mixture over the first layer of biscuits.
9. Dip the biscuits into the milk one by one and arrange them inside the container to make the second layer.
10. Spoon a third of the chocolate mixture over the second layer of biscuits.
11. Repeat the steps of dipping and arranging biscuits and spooning chocolate mixture over it to make the final layer.  
12. Refrigerate until the pudding sets, ours took around three hours. You can sprinkle some cocoa powder on top before serving.