Use the whisk to combine the dry ingredients. If you have them blended together in a jar, you'd just dump the dry ingredients into the pan. Since I am using Morning Moo, I'm adding water. If you were not using milk powder, you would add milk. I use cold water and the whisk.
The trick is to add just a little of the water - say, 1/3 cup (this goes for milk too) and stir to combine. This gets out any little lumps and makes it much easier to get everything to blend. Once you've blended in that first bit of liquid, you can add the rest - a total of 2 cups.
The Morning Moo is a bit foamy at this point, but worry not! It will settle right in as the pudding begins to warm up. Use a medium heat and bring it to a simmer. It's already coming together some. You want to keep stirring, and let it thicken, then let it simmer/bubble for a minute or so. If you don't stir it nearly the entire time, it may scorch and stick to the pan.
Stir in the vanilla and pour the pudding into serving dishes. If you don't want the top of the pudding to dry out, put plastic wrap directly on it. If that doesn't bother you, then let it cool a bit, then refrigerate. Congratulations - you have pudding! And I guess I was so happy about having pudding that I forgot to take the final pretty photo of dark, silky pudding in dessert dishes.
1. Companies that sell little boxes of cook and serve pudding use 'modified food starch' instead of corn starch. Corn starch is much more readily available (and much more affordable) to the home cook, but it does 'break'. If you stir a cornstarch pudding after it cools, it can get watery. It can also crack if it dries out.
If you just put the pudding into individual dessert bowls, the cornstarch works fine. You can make this pudding with modified food starch - you'll want a product called 'clear jel'. It's awesome, but pricey, and most of y'all will have to order it online. The non-instant clear jel is safety approved for home canning (you can't can pudding, but you can make and can homemade pie fillings!), and I love it for that purpose. 2. I use Morning Moo.
I haven't tried using any other brand of powdered milk, so I don't know how it will turn out with another brand. If you use a different one, you may want to make the milk, then make pudding, rather than just tossing in the powder. Or not. I just don't know. Also, the measurement in the recipe for Morning Moo is a starting point.
If you want it richer, toss in a little more. 3. We like our chocolate pudding a little on the dark side, and a little less sweet. If you want it sweeter, add an extra spoonful of sugar (the next time you make it - I'm not sure you can just dump it in at the end) and decrease the cocoa a bit.
And finally, the recipe! 1/4 c. (rounded) Morning Moo powder and 2 c. In a medium size saucepan with a heavy bottom, whisk together the dry ingredients. Whisk in milk or water a little at at time so the mixture does not have any dry lumps. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently. When it begins to bubble and boil, allow it to simmer for 1/2 minutes, until shiny an thick. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming and chill in the refrigerator.
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