Thick and Creamy Chocolate Keto Pudding

Introduction

This keto chocolate pudding never goes near the stove. Cream cheese gives it body, whipped cream keeps it from turning dense, and there is no baking, gelatin, egg tempering, or saucepan involved. Worth knowing before you make it: that also means it sets closer to a cheesecake filling than to a stovetop pudding.

The texture lands somewhere between mousse and cheesecake filling. After an hour in the refrigerator it should be thick enough to mound on a spoon, but still feel light when you eat it. If you want something much airier that is ready almost immediately, our Low Carb Chocolate Mousse is the better choice.

This one is simple, but a few small things decide how smooth it turns out. Soft cream cheese, cold heavy cream and sifted cocoa make a much bigger difference than adding extra thickeners after the fact.

Our cream cheese keto guide also breaks down the difference between block, spread, whipped, and reduced-fat cream cheese if you are deciding what to use here.

What The Texture Should Be Like

This should not pour like a stovetop pudding, and it should not be as airy as plain chocolate mousse. Think thick, fluffy cheesecake filling: smooth enough to eat with a spoon, but sturdy enough to hold its shape when you scoop it.

Right after mixing, it will be softer. The cream cheese firms back up as it chills, so give it at least an hour in the refrigerator before deciding the mixture is too loose. Two hours will give you a noticeably firmer, more cheesecake-like texture.

The Texture Depends On A Few Small Things

Use softened cream cheese. Cold cream cheese is much harder to beat smooth and is one of the easiest ways to end up with little white lumps in the finished dessert. You want it soft enough to mix easily, not warm or melted.

Keep the heavy cream cold. Whip it separately until it reaches firm peaks, then stop. Overwhipped cream can turn grainy, and underwhipped cream will not give it enough lift.

Sift the cocoa. Cocoa loves to form stubborn little pockets. It is much easier to remove those before the whipped cream goes in than after.

Get the base smooth before the cream goes in. Any lumps of cream cheese or pockets of cocoa still there when you add the whipped cream are much harder to chase out afterwards. Scrape the bowl, check the bottom, and only then add the cream and blend until it is evenly mixed.

If Your Chocolate Pudding Is Lumpy Or Too Dense

If the chocolate cream cheese base is lumpy before the whipped cream goes in, keep beating it until smooth. Scrape the bowl well and make sure there are no pockets of cream cheese or cocoa hiding at the bottom.

If the finished pudding tastes gritty, the sweetener may be the culprit. A powdered sweetener dissolves much more cleanly here than a coarse granulated one. Our monk fruit sweetener guide covers how the powdered and granulated blends differ.

If it is smooth but denser than you wanted, look at the cream rather than the mixing: cream whipped only to soft peaks carries less air into the base to begin with. Take it to firm peaks next time.

If it seems too soft immediately after mixing, refrigerate it first. This recipe is supposed to firm as the cream cheese chills. We would rather give it that time than start adding xanthan gum, gelatin, avocado, or another ingredient that changes the dessert entirely.

Make It Ahead

This is a good one to make a few hours before you need it. Cover the bowl or portion the pudding into small serving glasses and refrigerate it until serving time. Keep anything left over covered and in the refrigerator as well.

For toppings, keep it simple: chopped pecans, a little grated sugar-free chocolate, a few berries, or an extra spoonful of whipped cream all work without changing the texture of the base.

If chocolate is the main event, you might also like our fudgy keto brownies, easy chocolate keto fudge, or low-carb double chocolate chip fudge cookies.

Please rate it below and let us know what you think in the comments! We love hearing from you.