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The Chocolate Pudding Challenge

Submitted by Sonia Wagner, Exec. Director

A Hungarian survivor of a concentration camp, Irma was a spry 70-something when I met her. She lived next door and made beautiful rugs on a loom that was larger than she was. In her spare time, she studied Spanish as a fourth language.

Irma made an immediate impression on my family by wearing sleeveless, cotton housedresses outside during winter. She could talk to us by the mailbox for hours – standing in a snowdrift and leaning on her shovel.

One day, my father told her – with icicles clinging to his beard - that it was great talking with her and that he would see her later. Not realizing that “see you later” was an American expression not to be taken literally, Irma stayed in all day waiting for him. My mother’s diplomacy was called for, and we all remained friends. We also learned to watch our words.

And this is how the challenge of the chocolate pudding happened. For years, my sister, Dahlia, and I had enjoyed visiting with Irma every Friday afternoon. She always baked something special for us and served it up with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream. We watched cartoons together – I still don’t know what Irma ever made of The Flintstones – played games, and sang songs.

Occasionally, Dahlia or I used a word that Irma didn’t know. Our attempts to define the offending term always failed. Irma would listen politely and then trundle off to retrieve her Hungarian-English dictionary. Her determination to learn new words is what saved me.

You see, on one of our Friday visits, Irma served us some homemade chocolate pudding. Contrary to its delicious appearance – and to her usual high standards - it was bitter beyond words and inedible, at least to a child’s palette.

I didn’t want to offend her by not eating it, so I deliberately used an English word that I was sure she wouldn’t know. This naturally caused her to leave the room in search of her bilingual dictionary. While she was gone, I hastily upended my pudding into my sister’s bowl. The shock of this was still on her face when Irma came back in. “Dahlia, don’t you like your pudding?” Irma exclaimed. “You have so much left still.”

Polite as ever, Dahlia consumed the entire contents of her bowl, and I am still hearing about it. Happily, my sister eventually married a wonderful cook whose repertoire includes some amazing chocolate mousse. I never asked Irma for her recipe. All the same, the slightest whiff of chocolate pudding still makes me smile.

On special occasions, my mother whips this up...

Chocolate Mousse

6-ounce package of semi sweet choc bits
1/4 cup very hot strong black coffee
2 tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons dark rum
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Pulverize chocolate chips in processor until fine (on off pulse)

Scrape down sides and add hot coffee and sugar.

Blend until melted

Add yolks and rum gradually

When well blended, put in bowl, gently fold in beaten egg whites

Chill thoroughly

Safety note: You can use pasteurized BEATABLE egg whites. Also you can carefully heat chocolate, coffee, sugar - and then add run and yolks - to cook the yolks a bit. Rinsing the outside of the eggs with vodka or rum will kill bacteria on the outside.