Continuing with my plan of Valentine’s Day inspired recipes, I thought I would try my hand at making melt in the middle chocolate puddings.  A chocolate pudding oozing with chocolatey goodness, is certainly one way show your one true love how much you care. They are also a lot easier than you would think to make, it’s just all in the timing. My first was too runny, my second too hard but the third, fourth, and fifth were perfect. This recipe is from the one and only Gordon Ramsay. Although I did change it a little as I used milk chocolate so I had to put a tablespoon of cocoa powder in the mixture to make them look better (sorry Gordon).

Ingredients

100g of butter (plus extra to grease)

3 tablespoons of cocoa powder (2 for dusting, one in the mix)

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

100g of good quality chocolate (I used Belgian from the bakers mart but Tesco’s finest at Homeplus will work well too)

120g of white sugar

100g of all-purpose flour (the buksul one with noodles and dumplings on the front)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160˚C/Gas 2.

2. Butter two large ramekins, about 7.5cm in diameter, then dust liberally with cocoa, shaking out any excess.

3. Slowly melt the chocolate and butter in a small bowl set over a pan of hot water, then take off the heat and stir until smooth. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

4. Using an electric whisk, whisk the whole egg, egg yolk, and sugar together until pale and thick, then incorporate the chocolate mixture. Sift the flour and cocoa powder over the mixture and gently fold in, using a large metal spoon. Divide between the ramekins about 3/4 full and bake for 10 -12 minutes. Keep an eye on them, they are done when the mixture has risen and comes away from the sides.

5. Turn the chocolate fondants out on to warmed plates. Dust the tops with icing sugar and serve with a spoonful of vanilla ice cream or cream.

If you would like any extra help you can watch Gordon in action in this video.