Non-Dairy Chocolate Pudding

Thank you Vegan Chef for this recipe inspiration.  I needed pudding in a pinch, and this worked great:

http://www.veganchef.com/nondairy.htm

 2 cups vegan milk - I used homemade sunflower seed milk (1 part seeds to 4 parts water.  Blend for a long time then strain.  Slight aftertaste, but the chocolate covers it up).
1/4 cup unbleached cane sugar - I used 1/4 cup of maples syrup.  The doc says to cut down on refined sugar, to 4 tsp a day.  Not going to happen, but I can at least make an effort
3 T. cocoa powder or carob powder - used dutch cocoa - this makes it extra rich, but it is processed with chemicals. Trade-off I guess.
3 T. cornstarch
2 t. vanilla

Chocolate shavings - used Dagoba's Conacado bar - vegan and soy free.  Hold bar (or section of bar) over an empty bowl.  Use a vegetable peeler to remove thin layers of chocolate until bar becomes a stub.  Eat stub!
 

In a pan, place the soy milk, sugar, cocoa powder, and cornstarch, and whisk well to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil (no higher than medium), while stirring constantly, and cook an additional 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Transfer the pudding to a glass bowl, small individual glass bowls, or to small individual airtight containers. Allow the pudding to chill several hours before serving. Top pudding with chocolate shavings before serving.

Serves 4 

No pictures, sorry.  It was so good, it vanished.

Update 1/1/08 - When I made this today I used cashew milk (which is an excellent cream substitute) and honey for the maple syrup, and added cinnamon and chili powder to taste.  I also increased the corn starch to 3 TBSP, which I updated the original recipe to reflect.  This made it much thicker; more like real pudding.