Bill Granger | Bills Food | William Morrow, 2005 | Serves 4
These individual-sized self-saucing chocolate puddings puff up during baking to form a light sponge top. Deeper down, sponge gives way to moist, steamed pudding and, at the very bottom layer, a pool of dark fudge sauce. The true magic of these puddings, however, lies in how very simple they are to make.—Bill Granger
LC You Say Pudding Mold, We Say Coffee Mug Note: So as soon as you read this recipe you’ll see that it calls for pudding molds. If you don’t happen to have them on hand–or, like us, don’t even happen to know what exactly they are–not to worry. Any ovenproof vessel with a capacity of one cup—simply pour a cup of water into a liquid measure and then pour it into the desired vessel to confirm —will do. Onion soup bowls will work. As will a large mug. Even a … well, surprise us.
Hot Chocolate Puddings Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- A pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup caster (superfine) sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 cup milk
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 cup boiling water
- Thick (double/heavy) cream
Directions
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1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. Sift the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and cocoa powder into a bowl. Add the milk, butter, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Pour into four 1-cup greased pudding molds.
1. Stir the brown sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl to combine, then sprinkle it over the pudding batter. Pour the boiling water carefully over the puddings, then bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Serve with a thwack of thick cream.
- Chocolate Pudding Cookies from The Pioneer Woman
- Apple Chocolate Bread Pudding from My Colombian Recipes
- Sticky Toffee Pudding from Leite’s Culinaria
- Decadent Hazelnut-Chocolate Pudding from Leite’s Culinaria
Hot chocolate puddings recipe © 2002 Bill Granger. Photo © 2002 Petrina Tinslay. All rights reserved.
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Well, I HAVE to make that tonight as my tween daughter is having a friend sleep over (as if I needed an excuse right?) Tomorrow will post our thoughts
Oh wow, those look killer.
We JUST finished dinner and had these for dessert. WOW… My tween daughter and her friend compared it to a blend of chocolate mousse with moist brownie yet the warmth of a hot chocolate. I will be making these ones often when we have small gatherings as I believe this is a winner.
These puddings are delicious, but what Bill really exceeds at is breakfast. If you’re ever in Sydney, please have brekky at Bill’s in Darlinghurst. Hopefully you catch the servers on a good day; they can be less-than-ideal which is my one and only complaint about Bill’s. Go crazy, and order three things: the scrambled eggs (best in the world according to the NY TIMES reviewer), the sweetcorn cakes (my personal favourite), and the ricotta hotcakes (everyone else’s favorite). All those recipes are in his book Sydney Food, which has a new edition out. I live in Boston now but still order Australian cookbooks. You just can’t beat the simplicity of them. Bill Granger, Donna Hay, Stephanie Alexander, and Maggie Beer are tops.
These look so yummy that I am going to go out to the pantry and see if I have everything to make them for dessert tonight. They look sinfully delicious.
Don’t want to be caught asking the proverbial “dumb question” but I actually have two or three!
1. Do I place the cups (or flower pots or whatever) on a baking sheet to slide these into the oven?
2. If #1 is yes, do I also preheat the baking sheet?
3. Am I pouring 1/4 cup of the hot water on each of the individual puddings? Since I am known to spill things, I would be better off measuring it out before just trying to “eyeball” the amount of water.
Thanks for any help here! Sofia it sounds as if you did it just right!
Karen
karen, the questions you had were same as mine at the time we were making. I did put the four bowls on top of a oven tray and did not have that warmed up first. I was to scared to let them fall on way in or out of oven. I did add 1/4 cup water to each cup.
Thanks, Sofia. I am just now going into the kitchen to make them! I can’t wait to try the first taste. I know they will be great.
Prepared them this afternoon. Used taller soup mugs and they worked out fine. I placed filled mugs on baking sheet. Sheet wasn’t preheated, just the oven. Which brown sugar did everyone use, light brown or dark brown? I used dark and will try it again with light.
I made this tonight, it was so good!
I used 1 cup capacity mugs and should have used 6 or 8 mugs instead of 4. Could not use all of the topping and as far as the boiling water, forget it. They are in the oven overflowing as I type this. Don’t know how if I’ll try again but the 1 cup capacity is misleading.
hmmm. Interesting as I did not have that problem. I actually ready this recipe this past Sunday as we had guests for the football games and doubled the recipe. I too was using 1 cup bowls and made exactly 8 of them. I was re-reading the recipe and the ONLY thing I can come up with may be the eggs. I used normal size eggs and I made sure JUST to lightly beat them as the recipe says. Did you did normal or extra large eggs and did you just lightly beat them? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it. And in terms of retrying them, Tina, PLEASE do, as you will be happy with the outcome. Actually one of the guests this past Sunday is pregnant as her comments were: “This is exactly what I needed, thank you!”