Chocolate ginger puddings

[highlyeccentric]

I just made a batch of these tonight, and they're as delicious as they were the first time - thought I'd share.


This recipe is: vegetarian, nut free
This recipe requires: use of beaters, a fair bit of time faffing about mixing and spooning into pudding basins/cups, and lifting things in and out of the oven

Ingredients:

250g softened butter
1 1/4 cups castor sug
3 tsp ginger (grated or powder)
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/3 cup milk

Sauce:
200g dark cooking chocolate
1 cup thickened cream
1 tbsp brown sugar

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Note: measurements are in Australian cups (250ml) and tablespoons (20ml)

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* Beat butter, sugar and ginger in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one-at-a-time, beating until well combined. Fold in flour, cocoa powder and millk.
* Spoon the mixture into six 250ml pudding moulds, and smooth the tops
* Bake 35 min on 180 degrees, or until a skewer into the centre comes out clean.
* Set aside for 10 min to cool; turn upside down onto serving plates.

Sauce:
Combine chocolate, cream and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring slowly, for 5 min or until the mixture is smooth.

Note: as shown in my icon, I dealt with my lack of pudding moulds by baking in teacups. If baking in teacups, make sure your teacups are oven-safe (if it doesn't say, which mine didn't, I worked on the principle that microwave-safe and dishwasher-safe was probably oven-safe). Place the teacups in a deep dish - the sort of thing in which you'd make lasagna - and fill up to halfway up the teacup sides with hot water. Teacups seem to take longer to cook than the recipe asked for (around 45 min in my oven) Then serve in the teacup.

Comments

[miss_haitch]

Thank you for this! It looks delicious - I'm a big fan of the ginger-chocolate combination.

[highlyeccentric]

This is the first time I'd encountered ginger+chocolate, and it's quite addictive!

[acelightning]

I love chocolate with ginger! The last time I was in Australia, I bought an entire kilo of chocolate-covered candied ginger to take home with me. I did this when I first arrived, to make sure I had it. Alas, when I left, a week and a half later, it was gone, and I had to buy another kilo at the airport :-)

[highlyeccentric]

Is chocolate+ginger a particularly Australian thing? *curious*

[acelightning]

Although candied ginger by itself is fairly common, chocolate-covered candied ginger is a rather exotic combination in the US, generally only found in upscale "gourmet" shops. But they sell it everywhere in Australia. My Australian friends told me that a lot of the world's ginger is commercially grown in Australia, and they have plenty to keep for their own uses. I know that ginger beer is very popular, both as a soft drink and as a mixer with liquor (especially Australian Bundaburg rum, made from Aussie-grown sugarcane).

[highlyeccentric]

Huh. I'm Australian myself, I guess I'm just used to seeing ginger ale everywhere!

[acelightning]

All I know is that chocolate-covered ginger is so common it's sold in supermarkets, and that they sell ginger beer in cans already mixed with Bundaburg rum (very handy, that!), and that my friends told me that they grow a lot of ginger Down Under. Of course, I was only in Melbourne, and didn't see very much of the countryside...

[highlyeccentric]

Blech, Bundy. I think that's dry ginger ale, not ginger beer - or at least, that's what we mixed it with when I was bartending. Now, scotch and dry, that I can get behind.

I've no idea where the ginger is grown, but I think we do grow plenty of it, yes!

[acelightning]

I actually preferred the pre-mixed rum and cola in cans ;-)

Bundy tastes like something you'd use for cleaning old dried-out paint brushes... but it sorta grows on you after a while.

[leek]

This sounds amazing! I've never made pudding in the oven before, and the idea of making them in teacups is precious.

Also, chocolate and ginger! ♥

[highlyeccentric]

I can't remember where I got the idea of teacups from - possibly another recipe in the same book? It works out beautifully, though, because I have no pudding basins but many teacups. Actually, pudding is the ONLY thing I use my teacups for.

Chocolate/Ginger= OTP. Trufax.

[cypher]

Wow, these look wonderful -- I'm going to have to try them this weekend.

[highlyeccentric]

:D I hope they turn out well for you!

[weaverbird]

Oh my word, these look delicious! I am going to have to try this soon. Thanks for posting!

[highlyeccentric]

:D I hope they live up to expectations!

[acelightning]

Oh, I'm definitely going to try this! And I might fold some finely chopped candied ginger into either the pudding, the sauce, or some whipped cream...

[highlyeccentric]

Candied ginger would definitely go well with the sauce, I think :D

[acelightning]

I think I'll like it better with the ginger in the whipped cream (which I'd use in addition to, not in place of, the sauce!) Add some ground ginger along with the sugar and vanilla when you beat the cream, then fold in very finely chopped candied ginger after it's whipped. This not only goes wonderfully on chocolate desserts, it's also a nice surprise with fresh fruit ;-)