The Proof Is In The Pudding

Some of the traditional British cakes are puddings - steamed or boiled and served warm with an accompanying sauce. I came across a recipe for the Chocolate Pudding in the BBC Good Food magazine that I thought is easy enough to follow. Shirley Boot from North Devon was a reader of the said magazine who was kind enough to contribute her delicious recipe. I did not change most of the measurements for the pudding but added another tablespoon of golden syrup in the sauce. The latter came out still too chocolatey for me maybe next time I will reduce the baking chocs in it. Muscovado sugar is equivalent to crumbled 'panucha' from the Phils. Much more delicious to use than your standard white sugar. They have a lot of these in the Phil. sugar producing province of Negros in the Visayas region. I just hope they are more common in the markets of Metro Manila area.

My daughter J2 loved the pudding so much and I couldn't blame her. The balance of the sweetness and the other ingredients was perfect. It was probably the only cake that I made that she really liked. So there will certainly be more of these later.

Heavenly Chocolate Pudding

100 g  butter
2 Tbsp golden syrup
100 g  dark muscovado sugar
150 ml milk
1 egg
1 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
225 g  self-raising flour minus 1 1/2 Tbsp
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

*For the chocolate sauce:
4 Tbsp milk
4 Tbsp cream
2 Tbsp golden syrup
100 g  good-quality dark chocolate

1. Butter the inside of a 1.2 litre heatproof pudding bowl (pyrex is okay) and line the base with a disc of buttered greaseproof paper.
2. Mix the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
3. Melt the butter, syrup and sugar in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk and egg. Add the flour mixture to the pan, mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into the pudding bowl, cover tightly with aluminium foil and steam for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
5. Just before the end of the cooking time, heat all the chocolate sauce in a thick bottomed saucepan until melted, stirring all the time.
6. Turn the pudding out and discard the paper disc. Pour the sauce over the top and serve immediately.

Happy New Year everyone !!