Chocolate Fudge Pudding...post number 200,confessions and celebrations!!

“Hi, my name is Mona Malik and I am a food blogger. Welcome to my kitchen…” pheww…done!! 

Do I sound like an AA member? Oh, well over the years I have passed up on many good opportunities for the blog simply because of my hesitation to say this. Every time someone would start a conversation saying “Love the blog, would you like to...?” I would run a mile.

I wasn’t shy but hesitant (extremely hesitant) to admit that I blog… about food- if you have been part of my journey so far, you know I have never taken this seriously…the blog isn’t good enough when compared to others, the photographs- meh, no serious photo sessions, no thought process about what to put in next, no scramble to gather props to make it all real pretty, no stories as hook irregular posts etc etc.

I don’ have any friends from the blogging community, I don’t attend blogger’s meets, I don’t search the net looking out for new food trends, my personal facebook has no mention of food anywhere etc…only a handful of people from real life know about the blog and a limited few from the virtual world know about the person behind the blog.

But somehow when you are staring at the published posts and about to publish post number 200 - it hits you and you have to say “Hi, My name is Mona Malik and I am a food blogger. Welcome to my kitchen...”

First step – check!

Second step – oh well, I am yet to figure that one out (don’t you roll your eyes at me, some things and some people take time to change!!) But seriously more changes coming around but I am yet to finalise them…I do know that that some of the things that I listed above as things that I don’t do, will be changing…for now I am enjoying the fact that the “About me” section on the blog finally has my name on it J 

Time to talk numbers:

• 200th post,
• 400,000 plus blog views
• 2,000 plus Facebook likes

Hmmm…scratch the note above…second step – is to say Thank You for visiting (and revisiting), for that “like”, for the constant encouragement. Eternally grateful!! J

Before I forget, just started Instagram – food is a small part of that handle. You will see food and a get a peek into our life. I have just started on it and still playing around to figure out how it works. So in case you are interested and want to connect:  instagram.com/monamalikmm/.  No weirdoes please!! J

Onwards Ahoy!!... to the recipe…so the 200^th post had to be a dessert, right? And since it’s me it had to be easy and it had to have something to do with chocolate...here it goes...Chocolate Fudge Pudding a.k.a Self-saucing Chocolate Fudge Pudding 

The recipe has been adapted from the book “The National Trust Complete Traditional Recipe book” by Sarah Edington...enjoy J 

Chocolate Fudge Pudding

Ingredients:

Butter, to grease the pan

** Remember, all ingredients at room temperature

For the Pudding:

• Butter, 110gms
• Castor Sugar, 110gms
• Eggs, 2
• Self raising flour, 175gms (You can use Regular All purpose flour/ Maida instead, just add 2 tsp baking powder to it)
• Cocoa powder, Regular Unsweetened or Dutch Processed, 15gms
• Milk, whole/skimmed, 80ml
• Salt, ½ tsp (Self raising flour in the U.K unlike the U.S doesn’t have salt added to it.  Skip the salt here, if you are using US self raising flour or if using salted butter)

 For the Chocolate Sauce:

• Water, 350ml
• Brown Sugar, 80gms
• Cocoa powder, Regular Unsweetened or Dutch Processed, 20gms
• Instant Coffee powder, 10gms
• Vanilla extract, 5ml

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Butter an ovenproof dish about 8 X 9 inch wide and 4 inch deep.

Sift together flour, salt (if using) and cocoa.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

Add in the eggs one at a time with one spoon of the flour with each egg.

Fold in the rest of the Flour mix along with milk.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

In the meanwhile, in a small saucepan, gently heat the water, brown sugar, cocoa and instant coffee powder till the sugar is completely dissolved and the sauce starts to boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla essence.

Pour the sauce over the pudding mixture. The sauce will complete submerge the pudding base underneath.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the top is crisp and brown. The pudding would have risen through the sauce, resulting in a moist base with a crisp top.

Serve warm and for extra indulgence, serve with ice cream, double cream or crème fraîche.

Leftovers, if any, can last for a couple of days in the refrigerator (Hah, as if!!J)

Reheat before serving (though we have gorged on it straight out the refrigerator as well in the past)

Don't over bake the pudding as the top then goes very dry. If that happens, just serve each slice upside down and drizzled with pudding sauce and extra cream.

Serves 6 ( or not!! - you would know if you have seen this facebook post)