Useful Hot Chocolate Pudding

How can a chocolate pudding be useful? Well it is not so much that the pudding is useful (though its comforting quality could surely soothe a broken heart), but the recipe itself is a useful one to have tucked away for emergencies. Not that today was an emergency as such, but I didn't have much time to shop and had friends round for Sunday lunch. I was after a speedy, warming pudding that took minutes to make but delivered a touch of wow factor for the taste buds. Think a lovely moist sponge basking in a deliciously fudgey chocolate sauce.

This is the pudding. Its usefulness lies in the fact that you probably have all the ingredients in your cupboard already. In fact, if you are craving something sweet to end the weekend, you could go and whip it up right away. Really. The preparation will take ten minutes maximum. I promise.

Let me tell you what else I love about this pudding...

1. It was the first pudding my mother taught me to make.
2. It reminds me of my childhood.
3. There is nothing pretty about it. A reminder that beauty is only skin deep. Beautiful desserts can sometimes promise much but deliver little in terms of taste.
4. It has a 'magic' quality to it. You may have come across these puddings before - you make the sauce on top and it miraculously sinks to the bottom on baking.
5. It smells divine.
6. It feels satisfyingly naughty and decadent.
7. Did I mention that it takes only 10 minutes preparation to make this pud?

Here is my mother's version of this recipe. I don't know where it came from, but there are versions everywhere. I also make a lemon version and Nigella has a sticky toffee version that I am keen to try.

Ingredients (serves 4)

3 1/2 oz self-raising flour
2 level tablespoons cocoa powder
2 level tablespoons drinking chocolate
1 1/2 oz margarine
3 oz caster sugar
5 tablespoons milk
vanilla essence(to taste - around 1 tsp)

For the sauce -
2 oz soft brown sugar
2 level tablespoons cocoa
2 level tablespoons drinking chocolate
1/2 pint boiling water

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Sift flour, cocoa and drinking chocolate into a bowl.

2. Cut margarine into small pieces and mix into the dry mixture with the sugar.

3. Add milk and vanilla essence (to taste) and mix well to form a fairly thick batter. Spread the batter into a greased 1 1/2 pint ovenproof dish.

4. Mix the dry sauce ingredients together and sprinkle over the top of the pudding batter.It looks a bit odd, but fear not!

5. Pour over the boiling water. It will now look even stranger but have faith!Bake in oven for 35 minutes - the liquid will sink to the bottom to create a lovely saucy layer. Serve with double cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.