This nostalgic dessert is supremely chocolatey, deliciously decadent, and lusciously creamy with a silky smooth melt-in-your-mouth consistency. All the things you'd want in a perfect pudding and then some!
In a medium saucepan whisk together 1/2 cup sugar, the cocoa powder, cornstarch and salt.
Pour in milk and egg yolks and whisk well.
Cook mixture over medium-high heat, stirring constantly and while scraping bottom and sides of pan with a rubber spatula to prevent skin from forming.
Once mixture thickens slightly and comes to a simmer (with bubbling across top surface as well not just edges), reduce heat to medium-low, immediately switch to a whisk and let simmer 30 seconds while whisking constantly.
Remove from heat and immediately strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a heat proof bowl. Right away add chocolate, butter and vanilla while mixture is still very hot and whisk until smooth.
Cover mixture with a sheet of plastic wrap while pressing directly against the surface of pudding to prevent a skin from forming.
Chill 4 hours.
Add heavy cream and 1 Tbsp sugar to a medium bowl and whip with an electric hand mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.
Stir pudding a few times then spoon into individual serving dishes, top with whipped cream and garnish with shaved chocolate.
Notes
To shave chocolate here you can either use a vegetable peeler (running it along the end of a bar of chocolate), or grate chocolate on the small holes of a box grater.