This steamed pudding is really quick to make and if you time it so that it is ready when you have finished your main meal, you will have a wonderful family pudding. Kids will absolutely love this! The pudding is cooked by steaming it in a pan of simmering water, so make sure that you keep your eye on the pan and top it up with water every 20 minutes.
This pudding is served with a warm milk chocolate sauce. You could use dark chocolate, or you could serve it with fresh cream or custard.
This recipe makes a pudding large enough for 4 – 5 portions.
Ingredients for the Sponge Pudding:
120g baking margarine (Stork or Flora)
120g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
20g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Ingredients for the Chocolate Sauce:
150ml double cream
50ml full fat milk
200g milk chocolate, finely chopped
The pudding is made in a basin which holds 1 litre of water. You will need a pan which is large enough to fit the basin in, with a lid on. You will also need some baking paper, foil and string to make a lid on the basin.
Grease the basin with plenty of butter. Cut a circle from baking paper, the same size as the basin, and place it in the bottom of the basin.
Whisk the margarine, sugar and eggs together and when they are properly combined, add the flour, cocoa powder and the vanilla essence and whisk well for a couple of minutes. Pour this mixture into the basin. The basin should be around three quarters full.
Use a large piece of baking paper and a large piece of foil to make a lid to go over the pudding basin, making sure that the baking paper is on the bottom and the foil on the top. Tie this lid around the pudding basin with some string. Then tie some more string around the basin, from the bottom to the top, to make a string handle, so you can lift the basin out of the pan when it is cooked.
Put the basin in a pan and pour boiling water into the pan, so it reaches half way up the basin. Then simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes with the pan lid on. Keep checking on the water level about every 20 minutes and top it up with more boiling water.
When there is about 10 minutes to go until the pudding is ready, you can make the sauce.
Warm the milk and the cream in a pan until just before the boiling point. Make sure that it is warm, but not boiling. Then stir in the finely chopped chocolate and melt until all the chocolate has melted.
When the pudding is ready, lift it from the pan using the string and carefully cut the string and take the foil lid off. Using a knife, go round the edge of the pudding, just to loosen it, then place a large plate upside down on top of the basin and then quickly tip it up, so that the pudding slips out onto the plate.
Pour the chocolate sauce over the pudding on the plate. Leave it for a minute before you serve it, as the sauce melts into the pudding and makes it even squidgier! You can see that from this photo, where the sauce has melted into the pudding. So make sure you save some more sauce to pour over the pudding when you serve it.
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