Waiter, there's a beer in my pudding!

 I was looking for a dessert to go with the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner on St. Pat's and stumbled upon this recipe for Chocolate Guinness Goodness. I happened to have some Great Lakes Brewery Edmund Fitzgerald Porter in the fridge and it sounded simple and delicious.

It didn't even dawn on me until recently that there was such a thing as homemade pudding until I saw a post on my friend Megan's blog A Sweet Spoonful on Butterscotch Pudding. I was reminded of this blog when I was looking for ideas for a personal chef client that loved old fashioned desserts. So I made some scratch chocolate pudding and my eyes were opened to how easy and delicious homemade pudding can be.

This recipe is a grown up pudding, perfect for a dinner party dessert when the menu focus is beer or just for a rich treat. The porter did not scream out from the recipe but gave an added richness. Guinness might leave a more obvious taste. I did not reduce the porter and add to the whipped cream, like the recipe said. I had some non-drinkers to serve and thought that might be offputting so I just sweetened the whipped cream. For adults I would take this extra step. I used Ghardelli Bittersweet chocolate chips for the chocolae. If you have pint glasses, the final dessert comes off looking like a glass of Guinness.

Should you finish off the extra beer even though it is 11 in the morning. You can't waste beer right? Just be careful it doesn't distract you and the cream boils over. Not saying this happened but it could, right?