Warm Self-saucing Chocolate Pudding

This was not an attempt to use anything up, it was a 'Just Because we want Dessert' event. I used up a lot of little bits and pieces when I made dinner though, various small amounts of vegetables, so we ended up with quite a selection, but not enough of everything for everyone!

This pudding is easy to put together, and is quite magical in the way it turns out, making its own sauce while it bakes. The sauce ends up on the bottom of the pudding, and is a nice surprise for those who aren't expecting it.

The recipe can be used as a way to use things up, see some ideas at the end of the blog.


Turn the oven on to 350F. Lightly grease a souffle dish or other deep ovenproof dish.

Heat:

1/2 cup milk
50g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

When the butter has melted, remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, measure the dry ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cocoa
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a separate small bowl, combine:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa


Set aside until needed.





Add the warm milk and melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix gently until just combined.

Scrape the batter into the prepared dish.

Now sprinkle the brown sugar and cocoa mix evenly across the top of the batter.

Measure out:

1 1/2 cups of boiling hot coffee (I use boiling water and add instant coffee to it)

Carefully pour the boiling hot coffee over the back of a spoon and onto the batter and brown sugar topping.

Pouring it over a spoon prevents it hitting the batter too hard and mixing with it; you want the liquid to stay on the top, this is where the magic happens.



Place the dish into the opven and bake for about 35 minutes. It will be puffed up, and set, and there will be no sign of the liquid....

....but when you dig into it with a spoon to serve it, there will be a lovely pool of sauce underneath the pudding!

• There are a few important things to remember when making this: the coffee should be boiling hot and should be poured carefully so it stays on top of the batter; everything should be measured out and ready to go before you add the wet ingredients to the dry; leave the hot pudding to rest for 5 minutes before serving it, this allows the sauce to thicken up a bit.
• Serve the pudding with whipped cream, custard or ice cream if you wish, we ate it as is!
• I usually measure out all the ingredients, except for the boiling coffee, and grease the bowl. I then assemble it all and pop it into the oven just before serving dinner. That way it's ready when we are.
• Substitutions for the milk can be coconut milk, unsweetened almond milk, unsweetened milky chai tea or unsweetened milky coffee ( a great way to use the last the pot) or even 1 tablespoon of cream liqueur such as Bailey's.
• Use different spices, or none at all. I like cinnamon with chocolate, but ginger, star anise, hot chilies or cardamom also work well. Add in orange or lemon zest, along with the milk. Use almond or peppermint extract instead of vanilla.
• Instead of boiling coffee, use just boiling water. Juice such as orange can also be used for part of the water, heat them together. If you have a little bit of liqueur left in a bottle, use that as part of the water. 1 - 2 tablespoons will be more than enough, and it can be added to the boiling water just before pouring it over the batter. Think dark rum, orange liqueur, cassis or even port.
• If you don't have instant coffee, use the last cup or two from the pot, adding water to bring it up to the right amount, and heating it to boiling.
• Chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, dried fruit or chopped nuts can be mixed into the dry ingredients for the batter...2 - 4 tablespoons  will be more than enough.
• The recipe can be doubled, just use a larger dish, not a deeper one and adjust the baking time if necessary. This served 5 of us, but some of us wanted more!