Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding

The chocolate self-saucing pudding is one of the most impressive-looking things you can pull from an oven, and also one of the easiest. You mix the batter, sprinkle dry ingredients on top, pour over hot water, and bake. During baking, through what I can only describe as kitchen magic, the dry ingredients and water sink to the bottom and become a thick, glossy chocolate sauce while the batter rises above it.

It is counterintuitive to pour hot water over your cake batter before baking. I understand this. Do it anyway. The recipe works exactly as described and the result — a soft, brownie-like cake sitting in a pool of fudgy chocolate sauce — is one of the great weeknight desserts.

Serve warm from the oven, with vanilla ice cream melting into the hot sauce. This is a non-negotiable. Cold pudding is fine but warm pudding with ice cream is one of those combinations that produces a genuine emotional response. My husband, who claims not to have a sweet tooth, always wants more.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
• ½ cup (110g) caster sugar
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• ½ cup (125ml) full-cream milk
• 80g butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup (110g) brown sugar (for sauce)
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder, extra (for sauce)
• 1½ cups (375ml) boiling water
• Vanilla ice cream, to serve

Method

Step 1

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 1.5 litre baking dish. Whisk together the flour, caster sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl.

Step 2

In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, melted butter, egg and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined and smooth. Pour into the prepared dish.

Step 3

Mix together the brown sugar and extra cocoa powder in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over the batter. Very carefully pour the boiling water over the back of a spoon held just over the surface of the batter — don't stir.

Step 4

Bake for 30–35 minutes until the top is set and has a cake-like texture. The sauce will be underneath. Serve immediately with scoops of vanilla ice cream.