Gluten Free Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding
Updated: Feb 27
This Gluten Free Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding is an absolute childhood favourite of mine. Soft, chocolately sponge with a rich, gooey sauce that magically appears underneath... serve it up with ice cream and you can't go wrong! As an added bonus this is a really simple recipe.
What is Gluten Free Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding?
Right off the bat I'll admit this is not the most elegant looking dessert in the world, but it makes up for it in the comfort factor! Self saucing pudding is one of these magical things in the baking world that looks completely bizarre going into the oven, but comes out absolutely delicious. There are two main factors to a fantastic self saucing pudding:
An impossibly soft sponge: no pudding would be complete without a fantastic sponge, and this recipe is no exception. I've put my own gluten free spin on this classic recipe to get rid of the wheat flour and make it even more chocolatey and delicious. Don't worry though, it's super easy to make!
A sauce that forms while the sponge bakes: this is the weird bit. The sauce in a self saucing pudding is usually made up of a mix of cocoa, sugar and boiling hot water poured over the top of the batter in the dish right before it goes into the oven. It'll feel like you're ruining your poor sponge batter, but what happens in the oven is incredible. As the sponge bakes the cocoa/hot water mixture sinks down to the bottom of the baking dish and thickens into a delicious sauce. Then when you scoop out your serve of sponge you end up with a wonderful scoop of sauce to go with it!
How to Make a Gluten Free Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding
Mix the Sponge Batter: one of my adjustments to the original recipe here is to convert the sponge to a kind of an all-in-one method. This simply involves whisking together all your dry ingredients, then adding in all the wet ingredients and beating it together until it's smooth. The small difference with this pudding is just adding in some milk at the end. I add it in two batches, mixing well in between, to make sure it's evenly mixed.
Prepare the Sauce Mixture: the sauce for this Gluten Free Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding is made in two parts. First, a mixture of extra cocoa powder, caster sugar and a little instant coffee powder is sprinkled directly on the surface of the sponge batter. This is followed up with a decent quantity of boiling water poured carefully over the top. It's important to avoid creating divets in the sponge with the water, so the trick is to pour it over the back of a spoon to keep the flow really gentle.
Bake the Pudding: this pudding bakes for about 40 - 45 minutes. It can be a bit tricky to tell if it's cooked - we can't use the regular toothpick method because the sauce underneath will always make it look raw! I test the sponge by carefully poking with my finger. If it feels springy to the touch it's cooked!
How to Store Gluten Free Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding
This pudding keeps well covered in the fridge for about a week. To reheat, place individual serves in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 70% power for 1 - 2 minutes.
Overall, this is one of my favourite recipes to whip up on a chilly winter evening. It'll warm you up from the inside out!
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