This article was written for Annabel & Grace, which is now part of Rest Less.
This is one of my favourite recipes – for those days when only the comfort of something warm and oozing with chocolate will do. With all the flooding around us dampening our spirits, water pouring through our sitting room ceiling (again) and both girls full of cold, this was the perfect way to cheer us all up after a lunch of soup and cheese. Well, sometimes we all need a hug from the inside, don’t we?
Best thing about this pudding is that it can be made and served in minutes – literally.
MELT IN THE MIDDLE CHOCOLATE PUDDING (makes 1 big pudding or 4 ramekins)
4 tbsp self-raising flour
4 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp milk
1 egg
½ tsp almond essence
Middle of the pudding
Chocolate spread or peanut butter
Chocolate sauce
3 tbsp demarara sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp boiling water
METHOD
Grease your pudding basin or ramekins with a little butter. Add all the dry ingredients for the pudding base and mix together before adding the egg, milk and almond essence. Beat until the mixture is smooth.
Pour some of the mixture into a pudding basin (if making one whole pudding) or share out into 4 ramekins. Add a generous dollop of chocolate spread or peanut butter into the centre of your basin or ramekin and spoon over a little more of the mixture. It is worth adding at this point that if you have divided the mixture into ramekins, that they must not be more than half full as the mixture will erupt everywhere once in the microwave.
Into a small bowl, mix together the demarara sugar and cocoa powder before pouring over the boiling water and stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Pour this over the batter in the pudding basin or add to ramekins.
Place pudding basin (or ramekins) in the microwave (800watts) and cook for approximately 2-3 minutes depending on the wattage on your microwave. The pudding will rise up and should leave you with some sauce and a melting middle. Turn the pudding out onto a serving plate and dust with icing sugar for a final flourish. Serve with cream for a warm, comforting choccy pud made in minutes. It will look like you have been slaving for hours.
This is my version of the wonderful Jo Pratt’s Lifesaver Speedy Chocolate Puddings which can be found in her marvellous book, Madhouse Cookbook.