Hot chocolate puddings are a richly, deeply chocolatey dessert that magically layer during baking to give you fluffy sponge, warm pudding and a dark chocolate sauce. You’re gonna love them.
These individual hot chocolate puddings puff up during baking to form a light sponge top. Deeper down, sponge cake 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 CUP NOTE
When you read this hot chocolate puddings recipe, you’ll notice that it calls for pudding molds. Not to fret if you don’t have them (or don’t quite know what the heck they are). Any ovenproof vessel with an 8-ounce (1 cup) capacity will do the trick. A large coffee cup will suffice. Onion soup bowls also do the trick. (To confirm if a container is the right size, simply pour water into a liquid measure to the 1 cup mark. Then pour the water into the container you’re curious about. If it fits, tada! You’ve got a vessel that will work for this recipe. Many a thing in your kitchen will work, even a…well, you tell us.
☞ Contents
Hot Chocolate Puddings
Ingredients
For the pudding
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- A pinch salt
- 1/2 cup superfine sugar (or just blitz granulated sugar in a blender until finely ground but not powdery)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 cup milk
- 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter melted
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the topping
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 cup boiling water
For serving
- Thick (double or heavy) cream
Directions
Make the chocolate pudding
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Sift the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and cocoa powder into a bowl. Add the milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Pour into 4 buttered 1-cup pudding molds (or substitute stoneware or ovenproof coffee cups or large ramekins or any other ovenproof vessel). Place the molds or cups on a rimmed baking sheet.
Make the topping
- Stir the brown sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl to combine, then sprinkle it over the pudding batter. Carefully pour 1/4 cup boiling water over each pudding. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Serve with a thwack [Editor’s Note: We think that’s Australian for dribble or dollop] of cream.
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Recipe Testers’ Reviews
We JUST finished dinner and had these hot chocolate puddings for dessert. WOW. My tween daughter and her friend compared it to a blend of silken chocolate mousse, moist brownie, and the warming comfort of hot chocolate. I will be making these often when we have small gatherings as I believe this is a winner.
This swoon-worthy pudding is not only big on flavour, but is a breeze to assemble. I came home from a long work day, and as my leftovers were being warmed up in the microwave, I assembled this pudding in under twenty minutes. And while we ate, it baked and was ready for a elegant and delicious finish.
So, whether you’re serving one, two or twelve, you’ll love this pudding for its taste, and ease of making it, and, of course, you can almost tell your guests that you flew these in from a bakery in Paris as it lends itself to an artistic presentation or you can pretend you have slaved over these for hours. The pudding tasted like a brownie with a molten center. The sweetness was just right that it allowed the deep rich cocoa flavours to come through. Definitely making this over the holidays.
These hot chocolate puddings are rich and decadent, and easily pulled off in 40 minutes total. Sure that is longer than it takes to throw together a microwave mug cake, but the results are infinitely better.
Using a good quality Dutch process cocoa resulted in a very delicious dark pudding cake. We did find them a tad too sweet and also too large. Next time I would divide the recipe into 6 or 8 vessels, and reduce the brown sugar a bit in the topping. Another similar recipe has you add a teaspoon of instant espresso powder to the topping, a well known trick to create more depth of flavor. That would be a welcome tweak here.
I used Pyrex bowls that were wider and shallower than coffee mugs, which had the advantage of allowing me to check the bottoms for doneness. You want to be sure to leave these liquidy on the bottom. In my oven, they were done to perfection in 23 minutes.
Let them cool for only 10 minutes or so and enjoy them warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. If you happen to have any leftover, they reheat easily in the microwave.
These hot chocolate puddings are incredible. They manage to deliver an intense chocolate flavor without being cloying or overly sweet. And the “thwack” on top is absolutely perfect.
The recipe itself couldn’t be easier. No tricky maneuvers or hard-to-find ingredients. Just good old-fashioned cocoa powder, some sugar, flour, butter, etc. The baking time was accurate. I cooked mine closer to 25 than 20. A note on how they should look when they are done would have been helpful.
So while the recipe overall was a breeze, I did have a couple issues with it. It says to use coffee cups or large ramekins if you don’t have one-cup pudding molds. So I used half-cup ramekins and made eight instead of four. As it turned out, that was preferable because these puddings are so rich, eating a full cup could be a bit too much.
We ate two half cups the first night and agreed that one would have been sufficient. So perhaps that option could be added? Of course, you could share a one-cup pudding but who wants to do that??!!
Originally published March 24, 2005
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If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We'd love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Could this be made in one big container instead of using individual ramekins? Maybe an 8×8 inch pan…?
Hi Natasha, I worry that making it in a large container would affect the texture and lovely molten center. Do you have some coffee cups that you could use instead of ramekins?
I have ramekins, but don’t think they’re big enough for this…I’ll have to see if the coffee cups will work because I really want to make these!
Let us know how it goes, Natasha! I’m sure using coffee cups will only add to the charm of this recipe – though how much can you possibly improve upon molten chocolate?? Hope the results are divine!
I made this tonight, it was so good!
So good to hear, Rita!
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.
GM, either sugar is fine for this recipe. I specified light above, but dark, as you discovered, is perfectly fine!
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?
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 an oven tray and did not have that warmed up first. I was too scared to let them fall on way in or out of oven.
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.
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.
Hope they turned out great, crackers.