European Style Self-Saucing Chocolate Pudding

Don't be confused by the title. This chocolate pudding isn't like the kind you find in the Jello Brand pudding cups. This kind of pudding is a cake-like fluffy dessert covered in a dark chocolate sauce, which is easily created as the dessert bakes.

Are you intrigued yet? Oh my, you should be.

Just think ... you want a delicious and rich chocolate dessert, but you don't feel like spending ridiculous amounts of money for one at a restaurant or spending hours mixing carefully in the kitchen. Instead, you can toss this baked deliciousness together and sit around with friends while it does all the hard work for you. Perfect? Perfect.

All the mixing and preparation took me about 15 minutes, and it was well worth it. The hardest part is waiting for the dessert to finish baking, I suggest not peeking through the oven door. The beautiful vision inside might just drive you nuts with anticipation.

I adapted this recipe slightly from a great baking resource I picked up in the Border's Bargain Books section. While a European cookbook, the dishes are well worth the time it takes to convert the recipe measures into American. I've since found out that this book is difficult to find in the US, but more easily obtained from Amazon.co.uk.

European Style Self-Saucing Chocolate Pudding
--adapted from Baking, A commonsense guide
serves 6-8 (or 4 if you're really greedy)

What you'll need:
A 6 cup capacity soufflé dish (or any high sided baking dish), greased
A medium mixing bowl
Something to boil water in (such as a bowl and a microwave)
Ice Cream, to serve

Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk (room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar
2.5 tablespoons butter, melted
1 egg (room temperature)
1 cup whole-wheat self raising flour (*see note at bottom for preparation technique)
1/3 cup Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa, divided
1 generous handful roughly chopped dark chocolate (we used Ghirardelli 60%)
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 cup boiling water

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, beat egg. Add in milk, sugar and melted butter and whisk together vigorously. Once well mixed, sift in flour and half of the cocoa powder. Add chopped chocolate and mix well. Pour this mixture into the greased soufflé dish.

In the mixing bowl, pour in brown sugar and cocoa. Over this, carefully pour boiling water. Quickly mix together and pour over top of mixture in prepared dish.

Place dish in middle of oven and bake for approximately 40 minutes. When done, the pudding will be firm on top, though some of the sauce may be peaking wetly from the side. Don't fear, as long as the top has a firm crust, the dish is done.

Remove from oven and generously serve warm with ice cream. We used strawberry swirl ice cream, and it was delicious. Also excellent when drizzled with mint chocolate Bailey's Irish Cream. Try both!

* To make self-raising flour, mix 2 teaspoons of baking powder per 1 cup of flour. This works fine with regular all purpose flour or whole-wheat all purpose. If you use white flour, expect a lighter, fluffier consistency. Whole-wheat tends to be heavier with a denser bite.