When I grew up my mother didn’t really use shortcuts in the kitchen, apart from the odd stock cube here and there, so I was fed wholesome food made from scratch. My grandmothers were equally good cooks and cooked in the same way, so I was a very lucky child.

But then I started preschool and although we had our own cook I got exposed to new foods (some of them processed) and then in school it was almost a traumatic experience eating the often processed food made hours before lunch time and kept warm that whole time.

I definitely preferred the food my mother cooked and she would always pack my school bag full of homemade snacks to keep me going if the school lunch was awful (which was more often than not). But certain processed foods I got used too; like this type of dessert. The most common version of this chocolate dessert was a prepackaged powder in sachets to be mixed with milk and put in the fridge to set. It was tasty, but in a very artificial way and then I actually preferred it to my mother’s homemade additive free version that I just wouldn’t eat as it to me tasted wrong.

Nowadays I certainly don’t fancy the sachets anymore but because they were part of my childhood and teenage years I never learnt how to make these lovely chocolate pots myself. Which is why I had my sweet mother on the phone while I tried this recipe, courtesy of Swedish TV-chef Per Morberg. The instructions were quite sparse I thought, so I have provided a few more details below.

And the result?Absolutely lovely and eons away from the prepackaged sachets. Hurrah!

Chocolate pots, serves 4 

Translated and adapted from Per Morberg’s recipe.

800 ml whole milk
100 ml maizena
100 ml light brown sugar
2 egg yolksr
50 ml cocoa
1 tbsp vanilla sugar or 2 tsp vanilla essence

Mix all the ingredients in a sturdy saucepan. Start whisking from the start while heating up the ingredients. When the mixture starts to thicken, lower the heat and keep whisking. It mustn’t boil but let it thicken as much as you dare, then remove from heat. Pour into serving bowls and leave to cool. Then refridgerate until serving. It is nicely served with lightly whipped cream and sprinkles.