January 25, 2014

CHOCOLATE AND GINGER PUDDLE PUDDING

  chocolate ginger beer pudding3

This is a recipe I found in one of the series of little books by the Women’s Institute, called “Chocolate Success”.

It’s for one of those self saucing puddings where you end up with a sponge on top and a sauce underneath.  The interesting thing about this one is that ginger beer is one of the ingredients.

chocolate ginger beer pudding1

I haven’t bought ginger beer for donkey’s years and it took some finding in our local supermarket.  This was the only brand I could see.

chocolate ginger beer pudding2

I have made a similar chocolate pudding dozens of times before, using a recipe given to me by a friend decades ago, but this was the first time I had used ginger beer in it.  The mixture was extremely runny, much more so than I remember, and I had serious doubts that it would turn out right.  But it did!

I liked the texture of the sponge and that it was not too sweet, much less sweet than my previously favourite recipe.  There was a hint of ginger from the ginger beer.  I might be tempted to add a little ground ginger to the mixture to make it even more gingery next time.

chocolate ginger beer pudding4 It’s best to serve the pudding soon after it comes out of the oven.  As time ticks by the sauce thickens and eventually solidifies, in the same way as a custard sets as it cools.

We served ours with some cream but it would be nice with ice cream or even custard.  I have to admit that I also like the pudding cold with the sauce quite set too.  It microwaves well but the sauce doesn’t really become liquid again.

We_Should_Cocoa_Logo I am submitting this post to the current We Should Cocoa Challenge, the brainchild of Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog and hosted this month by Linzi of Lancashire Food.  You can see the details here.

The theme for January is “new ingredient” and as I have never used ginger beer in anything before, this seems to qualify !!

Ingredients

For the sponge

100g softened butter or margarine (I used Lurpak spreadable)

100g light muscovado sugar

125g self-raising flour

25g cocoa powder

½tsp baking powder

2 eggs

150ml semi-skimmed milk

For the sauce

100g light muscovado sugar

25g cocoa powder

150ml boiling water

300ml ginger beer

Method

Grease a deep pie or casserole dish of about 1.4 litres.  Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°fan / gas mk 4.

Put all the sponge ingredients except for the milk in a food processor and process until smooth.  Gradually add the milk and process to combine.  Pour the mixture into the prepared dish.

To make the sauce, put the sugar and cocoa into a medium bowl, add the boiling water and mix until smooth.  Stir in the ginger beer.

Gently pour the sauce over the sponge mixture so that it is completely covered and bake for 40-45 minutes until the sponge is firm.

Serve within ten minutes to ensure the sauce remains runny.

Serves 6.

13 comments:

  1. What an interesting combination, thanks for entering we should cocoa

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    1. Linzi, it was nicer than it looks in the photos!
      I would make it again, maybe using ground ginger in the sponge and just more water in the sauce, which would save a trip to the shops and be a lot cheaper!

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  2. Ooh - love the addition of ginger beer. Having just made a similar dish I know that it's hard to photograph as it's not pretty when baked because the sauce bubbles up - but those bits also taste the best!

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  3. I love this twist on the classic chocolate saucing pudding - I never would have thought of adding ginger beer but it sounds delicious! Perfect comfort food.

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  4. Have you tried Fentimans Ginger Beer? It has a great deal more poke than the average. Bundaberg (Australian) is quite good too. P.

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  5. I rather suspect I'd have drunk the ginger beer before I got to the point in the recipe where it is needed!

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  6. Have made the chocolate version, but this sounds much more interesting as love ginger beer! Just right for this weather.

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  7. This sounds really delicious - I love ginger beer but have never thought of using it in cooking, great idea! A perfect pudding for a cold January evening.

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  8. Oh yum - I see the caked crusader has already commmented - she's done a straight chocolate one recently. The 2 are competing at the top of my 'must make next and spoil the children' list

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  9. I never tried ginger beer before but this looks and sounds delicious. Will look for the ginger beer next time I go shopping and then give this a try.

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  10. This is a great pudding for winter. The ginger beer addition is an excellent notion. I confess that I really enjoy leftover chocolate self saucing puddings. They become fudgy, chewy and messy, especially if eaten straight from the fridge, but I've never claimed to have any class.

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    1. Phil, fudgy, chewy and messy is my kind of pudding!
      Who needs class anyway ?!

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  11. This sounds totally like my kind of pudding. I used to love ginger beer, but generally find it too sweet these days. But I can see how good it would be here and ginger is one of my favourite spices. Thanks for entering this into WSC and sorry for the delay in getting around to you.

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