Name: Chocolate Christmas pudding
Total time: 2 h
Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients: 100g butter, plus more for the basin; 75g light muscovado sugar; 2 eggs; 225g self-raising flour; 50g cocoa, sifted; 100ml milk; 8 caramel or chocolate orange or Lindt balls, frozen solid; 100g butter; 3 tbsp golden syrup; 100g dark chocolate; 3 tbsp double cream

100g butter
plus more for the basin
75g light muscovado sugar
2 eggs
225g self-raising flour
50g cocoa
sifted
100ml milk
8 caramel or chocolate orange or Lindt balls
frozen solid

SAUCE

100g butter
3 tbsp golden syrup
100g dark chocolate
3 tbsp double cream

Method

step 1
Butter a 1 litre pudding basin. Beat the butter and sugar together until it’s light and fluffy. Beat in 1 egg and half the flour, followed by the remaining egg and flour. Beat in the cocoa, a pinch of salt and the milk. Spoon the mixture into the basin and then drop the Lindt balls at intervals around the top, pushing them in down into the pud.
Cover the basin with buttered baking paper and a sheet of foil on top, making a pleat along the top to allow for expansion, then tie the cover on with string or an elastic band.
step 2
Put the pudding on a trivet or upturned saucer in a large pan with a lid, and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway-up the side. Cover and bring to a simmer. Cook for 1½ hours, or until a skewer comes out clean and it is coming away from the sides of the dish (look out for soft caramel in case you hit it by mistake).
step 3
Make the sauce by melting all the ingredients together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, or in a microwave, stir until smooth and let down with some more cream if you’d like a thinner sauce. Turn out the pudding and pour the sauce over.