Easy Sunday: Self-Saucy Puds

I promised this indulgent, easy recipe on Friday... try it if you daaaaaare. Do not, I repeat, do not get your weight watchers points book out for this one.

Bill Granger's Chocolate Self-Saucing Puddings


For the pudding

1 cup plain flour
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup caster sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup milk
90g unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the topping
1 cup soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup boiling water


Make the pudding
Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F).

Sift the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and cocoa powder into a bowl. Add the milk, butter, egg and vanilla extract and mix with beaters until combined. Pour into four 1-cup greased pudding molds.


Make the topping
Stir the brown sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl to combine, then sprinkle it over the pudding batter. Pour boiling water carefully over the puddings, then bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve with thick cream (lite of course!)

Enjoy!

shadow shot


Looking Out My Window


As I sit and work, play and blog at my desk I often look out the window. There sits a climbing rose, large and gnarled, sometimes looking a little worse for wear (nearly lost is a year back). This beautiful rose shades the room from the harsh summer sun and protects it from a lot of winter rain.

But it is more than that, there is something eternal about this rose, like it has always been there and always will be.

It is a source of happiness for me, a source of food for the various birds that come and feed - either on the roses themselves or on the small grubs that can be found on the branches. Today I also realised it is a source of nesting material for some of the birds as well. There I spied a New Holland Honeyeater, collecting small dried twigs in its beak and it went back and forward for ages. I also noticed this same little bird rubbing its beak in between some of the branches and wondered what it was doing. Well it was collecting spiderwebs to help bind its nest together. Now as the afternoon sun is setting, there is a soft light filtering through the leaves.

I hope that there is something outside your window that you love as well.

Soon we need to replace the fence upon which this old rose leans, I hope it survives the trauma for I would be lost without it outside my window.