Recipe: Self saucing chocolate pudding

Peaches and apricots are perfect with chocolate. Photo / Janna Dixon

This is not a summer dessert as such but who doesn't like chocolate at any time of the year? Serve it with ice-cream alone or match it with some poached apricots and runny cream.

I made this pudding from the Edmonds Cook Book (1992 Edition). I thought it turned out a bit dry, so my friend Felicity gave me this version, modified by her grandmother. Her grandmother moved with the times and also worked out a microwave version. What could be easier?

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup sugar
¼ cup cocoa
75g melted butter
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
Topping
2 cups brown sugar
¼ cup cocoa
2 cups boiling water

1 Preheat oven to 180C.

2 To make the pudding, sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and cocoa into a mixing bowl. Add butter, milk and vanilla and mix well. Pour into a round, 20cm wide, deep ovenproof dish greased with butter.

3 Combine brown sugar and cocoa and sprinkle over pudding. Pour over boiling water and bake for 40 minutes. Don't worry if it looks like a mess, it will be fine.

Or, cook in microwave:

1 Prepare exactly as above.

2 Cook in microwave on 50 per cent power/500w/medium for 18 minutes. Do not be tempted to cook it further if the middle looks slightly undercooked, it will continue to cook while it stands. Remove and cover tightly with plastic wrap and cover with a tea towel till ready to serve, for at least five minutes.