A great classic dessert, perfect with ice cream: hot chocolate fudge pudding

This pudding bakes into a soft chocolate sponge bathed in a delicious hot chocolate sauce. Best served hot from the oven with a little vanilla ice cream.

This is another recipe from my mum’s recipe clippings (thanks, Mum!). Some of the quantities in the original recipe were a bit vague, so I’ve listed exactly what I used here and given the different measures.

Sorry my pictures are a bit rubbish!

Ingredients (serves 6):

• 115 g /  4 oz self-raising flour
• 120 ml / 4 fl oz milk (any milk you like, including non-dairy options)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 140 g / 5 oz brown sugar (I used light brown sugar, but dark would also work)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 115 g / 4 oz white sugar (either caster or granulated is fine)
• 15 g / 0.5 oz melted butter or margarine
• 180 ml / 6 fl oz boiling water

Method:

The original recipe says to use a 2 pint dish. I’m not quite sure what that looks like (!), but I used my medium-sized round pyrex dish. I checked it would be big enough by pouring 2 pints of water into it before I started baking. I hope the pictures will given you an idea of the size of dish you need.

Grease your oven-proof dish with a little butter or margarine.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C (170 degrees fan)/ 375 degrees F / Gas Mark 5.

Sift the flour, white sugar and 1 tbsp of the cocoa powder into a large bowl. Add the milk, melted butter (melt using either the microwave – 25 seconds should do it – or in a pan) and vanilla. Beat the ingredients together, making sure there are no big lumps of flour in the mixture. Pour this mixture into the greased baking dish.

Put the brown sugar and the other 1 tbsp of cocoa powder into a new bowl. Pour in the boiling water and stir until the sugar and cocoa have dissolved. Pour this mixture – which is basically a thick hot chocolate – into the greased baking dish over the top of your first layer of mixture. It will settle at the bottom of the dish during baking and become the fudge sauce for your pudding.

Bake the hot chocolate fudge pudding for 50 minutes. Remove and serve while still warm.

I let mine cool down a good 20 minutes and the fudgy base layer was still boiling, so take care!

The chocolate pudding can be enjoyed on its own, but I think it’s better with a little vanilla ice cream.

We only finished half the pudding on the first night, so I let it cool completely, covered it with clingfilm and put it in the fridge. I heated it up in the microwave the next night (removing the film first) and it was still lovely. I don’t think I’d keep it any longer than a day though: it is best served shortly after baking.

---

If you would like other dessert recipes:

 

 

Microwave sponge jam pudding

 

 

 

 

 

Old school jam and cornflake tart

 

 

---

Claire Huston / Art and Soul