Ingredients for Chocolate Muhallebi with Biscuits
- 1 kg (about 4 1/4 cups) whole milk
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 water glass (about 200 ml / 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) granulated sugar
- 1 packet vanilla
- Plain biscuits, as many as needed
- For serving: crushed hazelnuts
How to Make Chocolate Muhallebi with Biscuits
Add 1 kg milk, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, and 1 water glass (about 200 ml / 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) granulated sugar to a saucepan. Whisk everything together until smooth.
After whisking for a minute, turn the heat on and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens to a pudding consistency.
The muhallebi is ready when it starts bubbling up and pulling away from the sides — you'll see it puff and plop.
Take the pan off the heat, add 1 packet of vanilla, and whisk well to incorporate.
Arrange plain biscuits in a single layer across the bottom of your serving dish (a long glass baking dish works well), then pour a layer of the chocolate muhallebi over them.
Add another layer of biscuits on top and repeat the process 3 times total — you'll end up with 3 layers of biscuits and 3 layers of muhallebi.
Once it has cooled slightly, scatter crushed hazelnuts over the top, then refrigerate until fully set and chilled before serving.
Tips
Sift the cornstarch and flour before adding them to the saucepan — this prevents lumps from the start.
If the pudding does lump up while cooking, don't worry. Pull it off the heat immediately and blend with an immersion blender until smooth.
Feel free to increase the cocoa to taste if you want a deeper chocolate flavor.
About This Recipe
Muhallebi is a classic Turkish milk pudding, silky and lightly set — here given a chocolate twist and layered with biscuits for an easy no-fuss dessert. Cocoa powder is made from cacao beans that have been fermented, dried, roasted, and ground. During roasting, the shells are removed and only the nibs remain. These are ground between heated rollers until they melt into a liquid mass, which is then pressed to extract the cocoa butter. What's left solidifies and is ground again into the fine powder we use in baking.
Cacao trees grow in tropical regions — across West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria), South America (Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico, and the Antilles), and Central America. Indigenous communities in Mexico used the beans as currency well into recent centuries. The trees thrive only in hot, humid climates and produce almond-shaped pods from which the chocolate-making process begins. Cacao is a major cash crop for many tropical countries.
If you enjoy this, our Biscuit Icebox Cake is well worth making next.
