Steamed Chocolate Christmas Puds

If Mum made six mini chocolate fruit steamed puddings and the family ate four for mid-winter Christmas dinner, how will the remaining two be divided so that everyone has an equal share?

LOL. That’s obviously a trick question. They won’t. In the nicest possible way, this lot I live with can fuck right off, those last two had a date with destiny which just happened to be inside my mouth. 

I whipped these little delights up on the fly for our midwinter Chrismas bonanza (aka yet another life in lockdown partay at home). For once I had the forethought to write the recipe down, and without being too much of a wanker about it, you’ll definitely want to thank me later, unless you hate chocolate, or fun.... I, for one know a good thing when I devour it; I’ll absolutely be reliving this potted magic - and I won’t be waiting for Christmas to get it in and around my face again. 

Get this stuff

150 grams dried mixed fruit

1/4C brandy or other booze of your choice

80 grams butter

1/3 C coconut sugar or dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 C almond meal

1/3 C dark dutch cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 C choc chips (optional but not really)

Do this with it

Soak the fruit in the booze ideally overnight, but if you don’t got time for that shit you can microwave it for two minutes to speed up the process which will open up the fruit and plump it up with the good stuff.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time and beat in. 

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder together then add to the creamed butter concoction and mix well. Finally throw in the optional (but not optional) chocolate chips and fold through.

Grease 4-6 ramekins (depending on how big you want your puds) with butter and divide the mixture evenly between them. Alternatively you can use a small cake tin if that’s how you want to roll. I’m not saying this makes it a single serve dessert, but I’m also not NOT saying that....

Cover each ramekin with a square of nonstick paper big enough to wrap right down the sides then cover the whole thing with aluminium foil and squeeze it on noice and toight to seal. This is important as it’s what will keep the water out during the steaming so don’t be half arsed about it - you can add a rubber band if you want an extra layer of security.

Find a large, wide based saucepan that will fit all the little pots of pleasure - mine is approx 30 cm in diameter and 10 cm deep. You’ll also need a trivet of some description to keep the ramekins elevated off the bottom of the pan and prevent burning. I used a dinner plate that worked a treat.

Place trivet/ plate/ makeshift elevating thingy into the bottom of the saucepan then arrange the ramekins evenly on top. Pour in enough boiling water in to reach halfway up the sides of the the pots.

Cover the pan with a lid and whack it on the stovetop over a low heat to keep the water at a gentle simmer. The puddings will need to cook for about an hour, but you should check in on the water level every now again to make sure it’s not getting too low and top up if necessary. 

Remove from the heat, allow to cool slightly so as not to sear the skin off your fingers or mouth.

Serve warm straight from the ramekin with a generous scoop of ice cream on top, or whatever else you fancy to sex it up with.