Dark Chocolate Butterscotch Pudding

Its still super freakin cold. In case you didn’t get the memo Sydney peeps. Its the kind of weather that makes you want to have the oven on all the time just to heat the house. The kind of weather that makes you stay in bed until midday, get up for some hot chocolate, then go back to bed. The kind of weather that just requires snuggles. And this pudding.

And butterscotch caramel.

ohhhhhhh butterscotch caramel.

Its no secret that I like Donna Hay recipes. Although I find the magazine a little light on, it is great for simple dishes that work pretty much every time. This recipe came from the June/July 2011 edition of the Donna Hay Magazine but I dug it out the other day when I was sorting through my mountains of cooking magazines. I’m such a sucker for a gooey, sumptuous sweet on the front cover of a magazine. I must be an advertisers dream.

I did originally make this when I bought the magazine last year but it just wasn’t delicious enough to warrant a blog post of its own. I put that down to my own laziness as I couldn’t be bothered making lots of little portions so I just made one big one. That ended up with what seemed to be a lower caramel/pudding ratio. Of which we know no good can come. So this time I made a couple of small changes.

1. I used my kitchen aid! Yay! This baby is seriously the best thing since sliced bread. I love that I can switch it on and leave it to mix and  come back with it all tripled in volume and ready for the next stage.

then I used a whole jar of butterscotch spread

is there a more delicious sight than that?

No? Glad we’re on the same page here.

The mixture was much lighter and more aerated after using the kitchenaid rather than just my normal hand mixer. Look at those little clouds of cocoa!

so light that the cooked little cocoa caps just pop up off the top of the ramekin.

Juuuust enough for some caramel butterscotch to peek out

And that isn’t even the best part. Don’t believe me?

the molten pool of caramel butterscotch at the bottom is the best part

you can dip the crunchy/fluffy chocolate pudding top back into the butterscotch for extra deliciousness

or if you’re EXTRA fancy you can top it all off with a scoop of ice-cream.

Damn straight.

So what do you think my lovelies? Can there ever be too much when it comes to butterscotch and chocolate? Hint: if you say yes, then I have no idea how you made it this far…

Dark Chocolate Butterscotch Pudding – Adapted from the June/July 2011 Issue of Donna Hay Magazine

Ingredients

1 jar Butterscotch spread (I bought mine from Dijons Castle Hill and Harris Farm Broadway)

1/3 cup (80ml) thickened cream

200g dark chocolate

60g butter

3 eggs

1/2 cup (90g) brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup (60g) almond meal

optional: ice cream to serve

Method

1. Place the butterscotch in a bowl with the cream and mix well until combined

2. Spoon the butterscotch mixture into the bottom of 6 1/2 cup capacity ramekins

3. Melt the chocolate and butter together and mix until combined

4. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high for 8-10 mins or until the mixture has doubled in size

5. Fold in the chocolate mixture and almond meal then divide the mix between the ramekins

6. place the ramekins on a baking tray and cook at 200 degrees celsius for 12-18 minutes or until risen

7. Stand for a few minutes then top with a scoop of your favourite ice cream!