With two young children, most Saturday nights we don’t have much on. Occasionally we’ll have dinner at friend’s or family’s homes or we’ll have an early dinner out with the kids (very rarely do hubby and I have ‘date’ nights alone), and sometimes we’ll have people over. Lately, if it’s a quiet night at home, I’ll make a yummy dessert, like apple pie or these puddings, to have before watching a movie.
I’ve made these puddings about three times now, and I can’t get enough of them. They are so easy to make, so impressive for guests and ridiculously delicious. You can infuse them with complimentary flavours just by adding flavoured chocolate, such as mint or orange. You can also refrigerate them once they are cool, and they turn into dense mud cakes!
If you are using good quality chocolate, high in cocoa, then I don’t feel these have a huge amount of sugar, based on six servings. In one pudding you are only getting three teaspoons of sugar, which for a special treat is great! They don’t have a lot of flour either so are low in grains. Now that we know fat is not evil, there is no reason to feel guilty about the butter, eggs and the cream you might add once they are baked.
Molten Chocolate Puddings
Inspired by this recipe here
125g unsalted butter, chopped, plus extra for greasing
150g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa – I use Lindt 85%)
4 large eggs, free range
75g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
50g (1/4 cup) self-raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa or cacao powder
Thick cream and berries to serve
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Liberally grease six 200ml ramekins.
Melt the butter and chocolate together either in the microwave on short bursts, using a double boiler method or just in a small saucepan on very low heat, watching and stirring constantly. Set aside to cool.
Place the eggs and sugar into a large bowl and whisk until pale (or at least until the sugar has dissolved).
Pour a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and gently fold before slowly adding the remainder of the chocolate mixture.
Add the flour and cocoa powder and gently fold in.
Divide the mixture between the ramekins. Place them on a baking tray and transfer to the oven to bake for around 8 minutes. Now, mine take about 11 minutes so you’ll have to experiment with your oven. You want them still a little wobbly on top.
Serve them in their ramekins with cream and berries or tip them out carefully onto serving plates. Fancy them up with a dusting of icing sugar or cocoa.
sweet ravioli! 