Another (better) self-saucing chocolate pudding

I have been searching for a self-saucing pudding for years.

My mum made one that was amazing.  I think she used to make it in a soufflé dish.  I need a soufflé dish.  Ideally I would have her recipe too, but I don't, hence the continued search.

I found this little Nigel Slater number in a magazine.  I made it with very dark Green and Blacks chocolate and I think a slightly lower cocoa content, higher sugar content chocolate might make it appeal to more palettes.  The children found it a little too rich.

It isn't an elegant dessert at all, but it has gooey chocolate in spades and, in my experience, that can compensate for a lack of appearance.

Ingredients

• 150g self-raising flour
• 2 slightly heaped tbsp cocoa powder (I hate recipes with ill-defined quantities so I just chucked some cocoa in and guessed when I'd put enough in)
• 45g ground almonds
• 200g light muscovado sugar (I'm sure you could use any old sugar)
• 75g dark chocolate finely chopped (I used 75% but I think less would be better, but I wouldn't go as far as milk chocolate)
• 200 ml milk
• 25g melted butter plus more for greasing
• a few drops of vanilla extract (I chucked loads in, probably too much)
• 1 large egg

For the sauce

• 175g golden caster sugar
• 75g cocoa powder
• 500ml freshly boiled (not boiling) water

 

Method

This method starts a bit like a muffin recipe with dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in a second bowl then stir them together.

Firstly though, butter an oval dish about 1.5l capacity and turn oven on to 180°C (or 160°C for a fan oven)

Put flour, cocoa, almonds, muscovado sugar and chocolate in a bowl.  If you're wondering how finely chopped the chocolate needs to be, this was my interpretation.

And this is what you should have

which I then stirred.

In a separate bowl or jug whisk together the milk, melted butter, vanilla extract and egg.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir together unit there's no flour visible.  Pour into the buttered dish.

Mix the cocoa for the sauce with the sugar and scatter over the pudding.  I used a sieve.

Add the freshly boiled water.

At this point you'll be thinking you've added too much water and that it looks very unpromising.  To take your mind off these doubts, put this in the oven.

Cook for 40 minutes until the top is springy. (Not sure mine was.)  After you've taken it out of the oven, leave it to rest for 10 minutes.  Apparently this step is essential but I forgot it.

Maybe it looks better if you rest it.  I opted to serve instead of rest.

Served with cream to counteract the strength of chocolate flavours.