Black Fudge Pudding Cakes
For Paul, hot fudge pudding cakes evoke memories of childhood birthdays in Tanzania and this sweet treat that is both cake and pudding in one. Somewhere between a fudge brownie and a custard, there is not much to improve in this sumptuous chocolate dessert. If you are a hot fudge pudding cake novice, it is an easy, quick, and guest impressing dessert that assembles like a science project. In our version, Black Fudge Pudding Cakes, we deepen the flavor with rich black cocoa powder, espresso, and dark chocolate chips. This week we made one batch to serve eight... and found that it only served two, delicious! This recipe is adapted from Cooks Illustrated.
Yield: 8 portions
Ingredients:
Wet batter:
- 3/4 cup flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup black cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips
- 6 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
Dry mixture:
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup black cocoa powder
Coffee mixture:
- 1 1/2 cups hot water (or substitute w/ fresh brewed coffee, omit espresso powder)
- 2 teaspoons espresso powder
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 400. Prep 8 ramekins, spray with non-stick cooking spray or coat with butter. Place ramekins on a baking sheet for easier oven removal.
- For the wet batter: In a bowl or mixer, combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips). Stir in the melted butter, egg, milk and vanilla and mix to combine.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the ramekins (about ¼ cup each). Spread the chocolate batter evenly, wetting your hands works well, as the batter tends to be sticky.
- For the dry mixture: whisk together the sugars and dark cocoa until evenly combined.
- Pour the sugar mixture evenly over the ramekins, about 2 tablespoons per ramekin. Do not stir.
- For the coffee mixture: Mix together the hot water and espresso powder and pour evenly over ramekins, about 3 tablespoons per container. Do not stir.
- Bake the ramekins for 20 minutes, they should be puffed up in the middle and just set. If you are going to be eating the cakes out of the ramekins, let them stand for 15-20 minutes. We like to invert ours right away and eat the gooey dessert while it is still quite warm, we find that when it comes to Black Fudge Pudding Cakes, we just don’t have the self-control to wait! Serve with ice cream, whipped cream or berries.
Note: To bake in a 9 inch baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the middle appears almost set. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before eating.
Black Fudge Pudding Cake
It has been a busy month for us here in The Hungry Hounds household, and Paul and I have been out of the kitchen more than in it these past weeks. While Paul is traveling in Haiti working to develop our Hurricane response projects, I am working remotely from North America. In the meantime, little Madeline is happily catching up on lost playtime with her family. We are reposting our recipe for Black Fudge Pudding Cake today, to send you into the Christmas season well armed with a fabulous and easy dessert that is both cake and pudding in one. Somewhere between a fudge brownie and a custard, there is not much to improve in this sumptuous chocolate dessert. If you are a hot fudge pudding cake novice, it is an easy, quick, and guest-impressing dessert that assembles like a science project.
Rich and Salty Coconut Blondies
Blondies, for those of you unfamiliar, are a brilliant dessert creation that takes a chocolate chip cookie, and mashes it into bar form, reminiscent of its brownie cousin. My Mom made blondies for us growing up, and they have remained a key dessert on my easy-and-failsafe shortlist; requiring only that you dump ingredients into one bowl, mix, add in some treats, and bake. These Rich and Salty Coconut Blondies are a densely gooey treat. As many of our North American readers have cool temperatures this long weekend, consider firing up your oven to bake these decadent Rich and Salty Coconut Blondies.
Mexican Chocolate Custard Cake
Mexican Chocolate Custard Cake is our favorite chocolate cake. This fabulous cake is flourless, supremely decadent, dead simple to make, and perfectly balances the subtle spiciness of ancho and cinnamon with a dark fudgy texture. But perhaps the most eloquent endorsement: an enormous bite mark and accompanying slobber stains across the recipe from our sleepy greyhound Leo, who, apparently knows a good recipe when he sees one! While you may be wondering about the wisdom of making a spectacularly sumptuous, rich, pudding-like chocolate cake smack dab in the middle of the holidays, don’t. Dig deep people, this one is worth it! Or, as one of our dessert tasters muttered under his chocolate-laced breath; “You’ve got to be dead not to like this.” Eat on.
Mocha Mascarpone Mousse
We all have our food indulgences. For Paul, it is a perfectly seared steak. For me, it is a custardy coffee dessert. This incredibly easy mousse recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsey, uses mascarpone cheese as a brilliant shortcut to avoid messing with egg whites. Somewhere between a classic mousse and an airy cheesecake, this Mocha Mascarpone Mousse is a crowd favorite. If you find the coffee and chocolate combination stuck on the brain, check out two of our other favorites: Mexican Chocolate Custard Cake & Black Fudge Pudding Cakes.
Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Everyone needs a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. This is mine. This Oat Chocolate Chip Cookie combines the luscious butteriness of the classic grandma-style cookie with the chewy texture and nutty flavor of oats and the rich warmth of extra vanilla. While Rebecca (and the health department) may not approve, I'll also share that this dough is almost as good raw, as it is baked! Our recipe is relatively light on chocolate chips, but feel free to amp up the chocolate if you prefer. Treat yourself!
