Valentine’s Melting Maple Chocolate Pudding

Molten chocolate takes a lot of beating and it’s difficult not to love anyone who makes these puddings for you. If there is one of these oozy chocolate puds on the menu in a restaurant I struggle to order anything else.

I spent my first few years living close to the Cadbury’s chocolate factory in Bournville. We were a Cadbury’s family. Of my dad’s eleven brothers and sisters, at least six of them worked at Cadbury’s. My uncles and aunts would come home with big bags of chocolate from the chocolate shop, always the slightly misshapen bars that didn’t make the final cut. I liked them all the more for their wonkiness. Dinners at my nan’s were merely killing time until we were allowed into the old teak sideboard and let loose on the chocolate stash. I am well and truly a chocolate lover and these puddings hit the spot.

Makes 4 puddings

75g butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled, plus a little extra for greasing
3 large organic or free range eggs, at room temperature
4 tablespoons maple syrup
a pinch of sea salt
seeds from one vanilla pod
4 tablespoons cocoa powder

You will need four dariole moulds or ramekins with straight sides. If you use ramekins with a lip, you won’t be able to turn the pudding out onto a plate.

Preheat your oven to 200c/fan 180c/gas mark 6. Grease the moulds well with a little butter or coconut oil and get an oven tray ready.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the maple syrup, sea salt and vanilla until pale and fluffy. Using a large spoon, very gently fold in the melted butter or coconut oil and cocoa powder until you have a smooth batter, being careful not to knock too much air out.

Divide the mixture between the moulds, place on the baking tray and cook for exactly 9 minutes, not a second more. If you are making the puddings in advance, you can put the raw mixture into the fridge and cook the puddings from chilled for 11 minutes. Once cooked, immediately invert each pudding onto a plate.

Serve with a spoonful of yoghurt (I like coconut yoghurt) and a scattering of seasonal fruit.

Image: Brian W Ferry
(This recipe has been slightly adapted from A Modern Way to Eat.)