easy pudding | Arabella Cooks

I love making mug cakes. I love how easy they are – no weighing, melting or creaming, just measuring and adding spoonfuls into a cup. Last night Mr Arabella Cooks and I fancied a quick dessert after our evening roast so I knocked one of these up. We stood with our noses pressed against the microwave door oohing and ahhhing at the magic of the rapidly rising pud and it’s gorgeously thick, intensely chocolatey smell. When they work these are as good as any fancy restaurant or dinner party fondant. Overcook them however and they are disgusting – like rubbery cardboard. Every microwave oven (bizarrely) cooks differently, so you might have to make a couple before you discover the exact time it takes to achieve mug cake perfection in your own oven. My first attempt last night didn’t work. The recipe I used called for far too long in the oven. The second one, though, after a few tweaks, was utterly gorgeous.

They don’t photograph terribly well. The feature picture here is essentially just a mug. Sorry about that. But cooked perfectly they taste divine. So get a dozen or so eggs in, find someone to sample the ones that don’t work (our two year old is very handy in that regard) and enjoy the research.

Serves two (or 1 greedy person)

Equipment:

A mug
Some measuring spoons (these are a really useful thing to have in your kitchen; dessert spoons all differ in size so to be really accurate you need these)

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons of plain flour
4 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons of milk
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil or melted butter (I use oil)
1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla essence
a handful of dark chocolate pieces (I used Dr. Oetker dark chocolate chunks; chop up a small bar of chocolate if you don’t have any chips or chunks to hand)
Optional – a teaspoonful of peanut butter

Method

Put the dry ingredients into the mug and stir with a fork
Add the milk, oil or butter and vanilla. Stir to combine
Add the egg and stir until you have a smooth, glossy batter with no pockets of flour
Stir in the chocolate pieces and if you’re going to use it put the teaspoon of peanut butter into the middle of the batter and scrape in the peanut butter using another teaspoon
Put the mug into the microwave. In mine, which is 900W, it takes exactly 1 minutes and 30 seconds to achieve fondant nirvana.
Let it cool slightly, then either eat it straight from the mug or run a palette knife around the edge and tip it out gently onto two plates. There should be a natural break in the middle where it’s still gooey, giving you two perfect melting middle chocolate fondant puddings. It’s delicious with ice cream, especially my raspberry ripple. Yum!

It’s dessert week on Bake Off tonight and in honour of that I’m posting my hot chocolate mousse recipe. And because it’s so utterly delicious it will knock your socks off. And because it’s really REALLY easy to make.

Ingredients for chocolate mousse (serves 4):

125g plain cooking chocolate
35g unsalted butter (softened)
3 eggs (separated)
40g caster sugar

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 c (fan).

Break chocolate up into small pieces and put into a mixing bowl with the butter and melt over the pan of barely simmering water.
Remove from the heat, add the egg yolks and stir well.
Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, then gradually whisk in the sugar until glossy and stiff (like a meringue).
Fold the meringue gently into the chocolate mixture and pour into oven-proof tea cups or ramekins. Chill in the fridge until time to cook (at least 20 minutes).
When ready take the mousses out of the fridge and place them on a baking tray. Bake them at 180c for 8 minutes until the mousse has risen to the brim of the moulds and is beginning to firm up on the sides but still gooey in the middle. Serve immediately before they collapse.

Ingredients for raspberry ripple ice cream:

200g raspberries
3 tablespoons of icing sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
Ice cream in an ice cream maker:
- 200g double cream
- 200g full cream milk
- 150g caster sugar
- Pinch salt
Ice cream without an ice cream maker:
- 600ml double cream
- Half a 397ml can of condensed milk
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Make the coulis – put the raspberries, icing sugar and lemon juice into a blender and whizz to a smooth sauce consistency. Pass through a sieve to remove the pips.
Make the ice cream:
1. In an ice cream maker: mix together the milk, cream, salt and sugar in a jug. Pour into a cooled down ice cream maker bowl and churn for 30 minutes or until thick.
2. Without an ice cream maker: whisk the 600ml of double cream, tsp of vanilla and condensed milk until it’s very stiff. Line a loaf tin with cling film.
3. For both methods once cream is churned/thick: In either your loaf tin or a shallow plastic tub, add a layer of the cream, add a layer of the coulis, add another layer of cream and another layer of coulis, then a final layer of cream and the rest of the coulis on top. Use a knife or metal pronged stick to ripple the coulis around and through the cream, leaving a lovely swirly pattern on the top (this photo is of some blackcurrant ripple I made recently but you get the idea).

Serve the mousses straight away with a scoop or slice of raspberry ripple, which is nice with some chopped pistachios and honeycomb on top (you can make your own or just chop up a Crunchie bar if you can’t be bothered). I made this in the second round of Masterchef for the past winners (without the pistachios and honeycomb) and they and Greg all declared it yum!

(Wonderful photo by Blanche Hughes, who has many more brilliant photos and recipes on her blog: Blanched. Check it out. x)

Arabella Cooks

Sharing the yum

Tag Archives: easy pudding

Chocolate cake in a cup

Hot chocolate mousse and raspberry ripple ice cream