Fudgy chocolate pudding

Despite my determination to not necessarily equate family dinners with baking and dessert, my sister-in-law twisted my arm when she came up for dinner last night. "What, no dessert?" she asked. I didn't take much convincing. I dived into my book of 500 chocolate recipes and selected this dessert based on the ingredients I had on hand.

Fudgy chocolate pudding

Ingredients

• 340g brown sugar
• 85g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 85g cocoa
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 225g butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 115g roasted chopped hazelnuts (optional)

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease a deep 1.5 ovenproof pie dish.
3. Put all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until well combined and evenly coloured.
4. Tip the mixture into the dish and stand in the centre of a large roasting bin. Half-fill the tin with boiling water and bake for one hour or until well risen and firm.
5. Serve warm with cream or ice cream. Can be served cold cut into squares.
   

Here is the finished product, still in the tray of boiling water. We ate it warm with cookies and cream ice cream. The centre was, indeed, very fudgy and the overall pudding resembled the chocolate brownies I sometimes make. Despite cooking for an extra 10 minutes, it hadn't set quite as much as I imagined it would, but the edges would have been overcooked if I'd left it in the oven any longer. It still tasted delicious, though!