Chocolate Porridge

Or Suklaapuuro, if you want to impress your friends.

This is Finnish chocolate pudding. I discovered a variant of this recipe in a dusty book deep in the University of Minnesota cookbook library. It included cream of wheat, which to me, is a breakfast food.

We normally eat our cream of wheat with drizzles of honey or dollops of apricot jam, but adding cocoa powder was a brilliant idea. I was sorry I hadn’t thought of it sooner.

Never one to shy away from repurposing dessert for breakfast, I started making this on cold winter mornings. It is the most comforting dish you can imagine. I found I needed to double the original recipe because our family kept fighting over the last spoonfuls. This makes plenty for 3 people. It also reheats nicely for a late night snack.

Ingredients

3 cups milk
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2/3 cup cream of wheat (or farina if you are fancy)
4 tablespoons of sugar (you can also cut to 3 if you like your porridge less sweet)
dash of salt

Instructions

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.

2. In heavy bottomed saucepan, bring milk to boil and then reduce to medium heat.

3. With milk simmering, slowly stir in the cream of wheat mixture. Continue stirring constantly lest you get lumpy porridge. It should thicken within 3 to 5 minutes of simmering.

4. Remove from heat when it reaches your desired thickness.

5. Serve with milk.