Ooey-Gooey Chocolate Pudding

I came home today craving something warm, chocolaty and gooey. I immediately thought of the self saucing chocolate pudding recipe I have been meaning to try out for weeks. I have made chocolate self saucing pudding once before, with my sister a few years ago. I’m not sure what we did wrong but it turned out very dense with an odd texture that turned to slime once it entered your mouth – not pleasant. I remember we had fun pretending it was a sewage works and even went as far sticking a few Lego men into it who were drowning in the slime. Since then I have always been put off by the idea of them. That was until recently, when I saw Bill Granger make his version of the pudding on one of his Saturday morning TV shows. His puddings turned out moist and fudgey with a lovely layer of sauce underneath and in short left me thinking ‘mmmmm I want one.’

So tonight I hunted out his recipe and adapted it slightly to suit my own taste. Bill’s recipe made four individual puddings but I chose instead to half the recipe and cook it all in one bigger dish. I also added a little brandy to the mix as I think that always goes well with chocolate. The original also states that a sugar, cocoa powder and water mix should be poured over the top of the pudding before going in the oven, which is what forms the sauce layer. Rather than do this I decided to experiment by making some hot chocolate and using that instead. I also used a mint hot chocolate to give it an extra twist.

The result? Delicious! The sponge topping was moist and fudgey in texture and the sauce underneath was glossy and gooey with a lovely hint of mint and better yet no slime in sight! My head is now buzzing with all the other flavour combinations I could try using differently flavoured hot chocolates – orange, hazelnut or mocha. Ohhhhh I bet it would be great using strong coffee instead of the hot chocolate. I see many more self saucing puddings on the horizon.

Mint Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding
(Adapted from Bills Food by Bill Granger)

Ingredients
60g plain flour
50g caster sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
120ml milk
40g margarine
1 egg
2 tsp Brandy

1½ tsp hot chocolate powder – I used mint flavoured
120ml hot water

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Put all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and add the margarine, egg and brandy.
Beat everything together using a wooden spoon until nearly combined and then gradually add the milk, bit by bit.
The pudding mix should be quite thin and batter like once all the milk has been incorporated.
Pour the batter into two 250ml pudding moulds or one 5x7 inch/12.5 x 17.5cm oven proof dish.
Dissolve the hot chocolate powder into the hot water and drizzle all over the batter.
Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes for the individual puddings or 30-35 minutes for the one big dish.
Once cooked you should have a dark spongy topping over a thick glossy sauce.Eat immediately and serve with cream or ice cream if desired.

Serves 2.