Chez Rowe, it’s seemed like a week of rain, rain and more rain. Spring is supposed to have sprung, but has it really…? 

Self-saucing chocolate Jaffa pudding – singing in the rain

So, our intrepid trio needed to find a way to stave off the cold and damp – and what better than a home-warming, indulgent chocolate pudding? Adapted from a recipe in the BBC Good Food October (yes, October…) 2016 collection, you will need:

For the batter: 35g butter (plus some for greasing the dish), 90g self-raising flour, 45g caster sugar, 20g cocoa, ½ tsp baking powder, zest and juice of 1 orange, 1 egg beaten, 50ml milk, 35g chocolate.

For the sauce: 50g light muscovado sugar, 15g cocoa, 100ml boiling water.

Start by preparing the batter: melt the butter and chocolate bain-marie. In a separate bowl mix well all the dry ingredients (flour, caster sugar, cocoa and baking powder), add the orange zest and juice, the egg, milk and then the chocolate/butter mixture. Mix until all the ingredients are incorporated, then pour into the buttered ovenproof dish and make level.

Separately, mix the ingredients for the sauce and then pour over the batter. Yes, it does look strange at this point (batter with water floating on top), but don’t be tempted to mix or do anything else. Just put it in a pre-heated oven at 180°C and bake for about 30 min, until the top looks firm and risen.

Now, when you break into the pudding (with a large serving spoon) you will find the most delicious and indulgent sauce underneath. Serve at once, while the chocolate is warm and oozing.

With such a pudding to cheer us up, we wouldn’t mind if it rained every day! It’s a shame that the weather forecast for the weekend and next week is sunshine, because we like… ♫ ♪ singin’ in the rain ♫ ♪