Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups self-raising flour
- 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
- 250 grams butter
- 1 ¼ cup sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 4 teaspoons milk
Chocolate Sauce
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 cups boiling water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190 °C.
- Cream together the butter and sugar, using an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing between the addition of each egg. Add in the vanilla essence.
- Sift together the flour and cocoa powder and add them to the butter mixture, along with the coffee powder and milk. Mix until incorporated.
- Spread the pudding mixture into a deep casserole dish.
- Combine together the brown sugar and cocoa powder. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture over the top of the pudding. Gently pour the hot water down the side of the casserole dish.
- Cook the chocolate pudding for 40 minutes. Allow to rest for 5 minutes and serve warm with vanilla icecream.
Ever since I can remember as a child, chocolate pudding was a dessert we frequently had in the house growing up. The recipe my family used was taken from a women’s weekly cookbook, and was cooked in the microwave. And while a microwave self saucing pudding is quick to make and has great flavors, it has nothing on this recipe, which has now become my go to recipe for when I get chocolate pudding cravings.
You will want to make this dish in a large casserole dish, it makes enough to feed 8 comfortably and it does rise a little during the baking process.
The Chocolate Pudding Batter
This amazing dessert starts with the fact that it has very few dishes. In fact, if you own an electric hand mixer, it can be all made in the one casserole dish.
The first thing you will need to do to make the pudding batter is to cream together the butter and sugar. It’s best to use butter that has been brought to room temperature, and then cream it with the sugar until you get a light and fluffy yellow mixture.
Next, add in vanilla essence and the eggs one at a time, mixing the batter through after each egg.
To finish the batter, sift the flour and cocoa powder together, and this along with the milk and coffee powder to the butter mixture. Stir the batter through until just combined.
The Self Saucing Sauce
The sauce on this recipe speaks to the lazy side of me, when I don’t feel like going to much effort in the kitchen. By all means take all the sauce ingredients and stir them together in a jug to make the sauce , but I find it’s just as effective if you simply just sprinkle the sauce ingredients over the top.
Start but scattering the cocoa powder over the top of the batter. Next, scatter on the brown sugar, ensuring all lumps are broken up for both the cocoa powder and the sugar. To finish, pour the hot water down the side of the baking dish. And it’s that simple.
Cooking the pudding
I have experimented with baking this pudding at both 180 and 190 °C.
At 190 °C – cook for 40 minutes. You will be left with a delicious batter that tastes a bit cakey.
at 180 °C – cooking for about 50 minutes. This is my preferred time and temperature. You get a similar texture than the higher temperature, but i found it gives a bit more time for some of the edges to get a nice crispiness to them.
Once the pudding is cooked, remove it for the oven and let it rest for about 5 minutes before serving warm. It serves nicely with vanilla icecream or freshly whipped cream.
