Chocolate Fudge Pudding
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Ingredients

For the Pudding

  • 125g flour
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 2tbsp cocoa
  • pinch salt
  • 150g sugar*
  • 125ml milk
  • 1tsp vanilla essence
  • 30g butter
  • 1 egg**
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts***
  • * A mixture of brown and white is a good idea.
  • **If you leave out the egg, increase the baking powder to 2 tsp.
  • ***Or chopped chocolate

For the Topping

  • 150 g brown sugar
  • 4 tbsp cocoa
  • 375ml hot water

For the Pudding

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp cocoa
  • pinch salt
  • ¾ cup sugar*
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 egg**
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts***
  • * A mixture of brown and white is a good idea.
  • ** If you leave out the egg, increase the baking powder to 2 tsp.
  • *** Or chopped chocolate

For the Topping

  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 4 tbsp cocoa
  • 1½ cups hot water

Chocolate Fudge Pudding

Now this is definitely not a chocolate extravaganza. Made from simple ingredients it is a modest pudding which will bake away gently as you eat your main course and it is a New Zealand favourite. As a child I was always delighted by the way the sugar and cocoa sprinkled on the top combined with hot water to magically create a smooth chocolate sauce under the pudding, and we always had it with very cold milk - or creamy top milk. Over the years some cooks have enriched the basic recipe with more butter, more eggs, chopped or melted chocolate, introduced some coffee to make a mocha version, left out the chocolate altogether for a caramel effect and added some sherry or cognac or whisky for extra zing. Here is the most basic, simple version to be served with runny cream for an authentic, old fashioned Chocolate Fudge Pudding experience. It is also known as Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding, but in 1952, in The Hostess Cookbook Helen M. Cox came up with the best name: she called it Chocolate Harmony.

Getting ready

  1. Preheat the oven to 350º F/180º C. Grease a fairly shallow oven proof dish, which holds about 4 cups/ 1 litre. Melt the butter.

Mixing and baking

  1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa and mix through the sugar.
  2. Combine the sugar, milk, vanilla essence and melted butter, pour them onto the dry ingredients with the beaten egg and mix until smooth. Add the walnuts or chocolate.
  3. Spread the batter evenly in the baking dish and sprinkle with the sifted cocoa and the brown sugar. Pour the hot water carefully over, completely covering the mixture.
  4. Bake for about 1 hour until the topping is firm to the touch and the pudding smells cooked. Serve with cream. (A little sweet sherry poured over each serving is a very good idea for a special occasion.)