Chocolate Orange Pudding – Oh So Yummy Recipe!

As part of our Sunday family dinner, tonight was my turn in the kitchen (I know, on Mother’s Day! Good job I love cooking) so I decided to rustle up a so-tasty-you-wouldn’t-believe-how-healthy-it-was chicken cacciatore. And since it was so healthy, I followed it up with a delicious (but not quite so healthy) chocolate orange pudding, which the children had both pointed out in my beloved BBC Good Food magazine. The recipe claimed to serve 8, but as I intended it only really to be for the children, I scaled it back as much as I could, which was to a third of the original (it made it funny quantities, but the full recipe called for 3 eggs). It ended up making four ramekins, which were so full that the chocolate sauce that should have been oozing underneath, got all pushed out onto the tray I was baking them on.

Anyway, my self-saucing chocolate orange pudding didn’t turn out quite as it should have done, but it was a roaring success anyway, and completely delicious with cream or custard.

Ingredients

33g butter, melted (plus extra for greasing)
83g self raising flour
46g caster sugar
16g cocoa powder
zest and juice of 1/3 orange
1 egg
50ml milk
33g orange chocolate (I used orange Aero, which have a great colour to the pudding)

For the sauce:
66g soft brown sugar
8g cocoa powder
100ml boiling water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, boil the kettle and grease a 1litre baking dish (or several smaller dishes for individual portions).

2. Put the dry ingredients (flour, caster sugar, cocoa, baking powder, orange zest and a tiny pinch of salt) into a mixing bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the orange juice, egg, melted butter and milk, then pour over the dry ingredients, mixing until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate, then pour into the baking dish(es).

4. Mix 100ml boiling water with the sugar and cocoa powder for the sauce, and pour over the pudding mixture. Be aware that it will look a bit strange at this stage.

5. Bake for 30 mins until the top has risen and is firm and crisp. Carefully spoon into bowls (this is where the sauce should ooze from underneath) and serve with custard, ice cream or cream, and eat while hot.

The quantities given here served four people for two days, and was plenty, in my opinion.

How easy was it?

The hardest part was calculating the quantities I wanted as I was going along. There is nothing taxing about the recipe and as long as you follow the steps, it’s simple enough.

Would I make it again?

As a lover of chocolate, and of pudding, yes. Absolutely. As someone conscious of calorific content, it would have to be as a treat though

Anything I’d change?

I would make the mixture go further by using more ramekins, and then hopefully the sauce would stay in as it’s supposed to. It would be even better if the sauce had been there.  I’m also tempted to try it with cointreau for a grown up version.

I worked out the calories as I made it (margarine, not butter, and skimmed milk) to be 144 per serving (counting my quantities as serving 8), so actually, it’s not too bad really. Excuse the completely non-fancy photos – it smelled too good to stand around photographing it, when I could have been eating it

I’m linking this post up with A Mummy Too‘s #RecipeOfTheWeek, which this week features her fabulous looking Oreo frosted chocolate cupcakes. Pop over to see what else is on offer from the other lovely bloggers!