Vogue Entertaining and Travel, mid-winter'01. Photography by Ben Dearnley
Yes, I know that I was setting myself a crazy challenge... but I really thought that I could take a decent picture of a chocolate pudding, not unlike above. Therefore this morning I baked with a mission, i.e. to photograph the pudding just as they came out of the oven all puffed and lovely with a dollop of cream on top and a drizzle of hot chocolate sauce. I had made it on two occasions, so I knew that after awhile the lovely pudding that had risen just slightly off the brim would shrivel and sink. I had only one chance, one pudding to play with. I was to bring the rest (yes, in their deflated condition) to lunch at T+C's place.
For the sake of self improvement, I noted some things I would have done otherwise next time : I should have heated the chocolate sauce a bit more to thin it out a bit, and it would help the cream to loosen up (first mistake). Second mistake was that I poured too much sauce and the weight of it flattened the top.
Fatal mistake, I then decided to take the pudding out of the ramekin, hoping that I would get it out intact, but neeeeoooww it was a rather awkward affair. So yeah, the result was an easy victory to Vogue E+T and a rematch between me and Ben has already been scheduled for sometime this week before I leave for holidays. Hopefully next time my pudding will look rather sophisticated and delicate and not so rustic.
Pink table, this morning at approximately 10 am. Photography by yours truly
Creamy chocolate puddings with chocolate sauce
(serves 8)
1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
60 gr butter
35 gr plain flour
175 gr dark chocolate
5 egg yolks
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp Grand Marnier
6 eggwhites
a pinch of salt
Chocolate sauce:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup cream
40 gr butter
180 gr good quality cooking chocolate, grated
To serve : thick cream
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Butter 8 x 250ml soufflé dishes and set aside.
Bring the milk to the boil in a saucepan with the vanilla bean, then remove from the heat.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a separate heavy-based saucepan, stir in the flour, mixing well to incorporate and cook for a few seconds. Add the chocolate and stir until melted.
Remove the vanilla bean from the milk, pour in the chocolate mixture, and whisk well so there are no lumps.
Beat the egg yolks with half the sugar until the yolks are pale and thick. Add the cooked chocolate mixture and Grand Marnier, stirring well to combine.
Beat eggwhites with the salt until they hold soft peaks. Gradually add the remaining sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.Carefully fold the chocolate mixture into the eggwhites.
Spoon into the prepared dishes and bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for 16-18 minutes or until the puddings are well risen.
To make the chocolate sauce : while the puddings are cooking, put the brown sugar, cream and butter in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved, then add the grated chocolate. Stir until melted. The sauce should have pouring consistency.
To serve: pass the cream and hot chocolate sauce separately to spoon into the centre of each hot pudding.
Note : the pudding on its own is light and lovely, even when it has sunken... all the three times I made these, they went down very well. I pre-made the chocolate sauce a day earlier and stored it in the fridge, naturally I didn't use all of the 2 cups of brown sugar. Also because I only have little 125ml ramekins, I baked it for only about 12 minutes or so.
