THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

CHOCOLATE PUDDING – Two tablespoons butter, one cup sugar, four eggs, four bars of chocolate, two tablespoons flour, half teaspoon baking powder. Rub sugar and butter to a cream, add eggs well beaten. Melt chocolate in three tablespoons of water, let boil up, add flour last, and steam three quarters of an hour. Serve with whipped cream.

~Culinary Landmarks or Half-Hours with Sault Ste. Marie Housewives (3rd Edition). Sault Ste. Marie: St. Luke’s Woman’s Auxiliary, 1909.

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• 2 Tb. butter
• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
• 3 Tb. water
• 2 Tb. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• whipped cream (optional – to serve).

Grease four individual oven-proof baking dishes with butter (ramekins).

Prepare a lidded kettle (large pot) with a rack in it (or a steaming basket with the centre removed) large enough to hold the four baking dishes; pour an inch or so of water into the bottom of the pot, and set it over medium heat, so that the water will be boiling, ready to start steaming the puddings.

Sift the flour and baking powder together.

In a small pan, melt the chocolate with three tablespoons of water over very low heat; stir to blend.

Meanwhile, blend together the butter and sugar with a spoon in a mixing bowl, until the mixture has a slushy, even consistency.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they are frothy and lemon-coloured.

Add the beaten eggs to the sugar mixture, and beat thoroughly until light and smooth.

Put the melted chocolate mixture into a mixing bowl, and gradually add the egg mixture to it; beat thoroughly until the batter is smooth and glossy.

Add the sifted dry ingredients, and beat until smooth.

Pour the batter into the four buttered baking dishes, dividing it evenly among them.

Cover each with a piece of greaseproof paper and tin foil – be sure to create a pleat in the top – and then tie this topper on with a piece of string. Create a handle with string as well for each, so that they are easy to remove from the steaming basket. This video may help: Mason Cash – How to steam a pudding

Place them on the rack (or steaming basket) in the large pot, over boiling water, and cover the pan with a lid.

Steam the puddings over boiling water, at medium heat, for 45 minutes.

(Replenish the pot with additional boiling water, if required.)

When the puddings are cooked, remove them from the pot; serve them either in their dishes or ramekins, or loosen the edges with a sharp knife, and invert them onto serving plates.

Serve immediately, with sweetened whipped cream.

Yield: serves 4.

Fine-textured, rich-flavoured whimsies – truly a chocolate lover’s delight.

A note about puddings: In North America, we think of puddings as a creamy, cold dessert similar to a custard. However, traditional English puddings are more like a cake, and that’s just what this recipe makes…. moist, delicious, individual cakes.

A note from Patricia: I am a glutton for chocolate, but I was apprehensive about preparing this recipe because of the steaming. It seemed odd to me (as did the steamed salmon loaf), and I was worried that it would turn into a watery mushy mess. I used my largest pot, with a silicone steaming basket, and managed to fit 3 of the ramekins in there. The fourth ramekin went into a smaller separate pot and I won’t even tell you what I rigged up in there to keep the ramekin above the water line (we do what we have to do). The Chocolate Puddings turned out beautifully…. I think that the only words I could use to describe these are “bonkers”. So chocolately, so moist, so melt-in-your-mouth. The whipped cream makes these extra special, and I ate mine with some fresh raspberries. I’ll be making these regularly to soothe my chocolate cravings. And yes, I made this gluten-free by substituting 1:1 gluten-free baking flour.

WHIPPED CREAM. – An everyday cook declares that with an ordinary two-wheeled egg-beater costing from ten to fifteen cents, she has never been more than four minutes bringing ordinary city cream to a stiff foam. She puts half a pint, which doubles in the beating, into a common white bowl, narrow at the bottom, and beats, touching sides and bottom as seldom as possible. Twice a week through the winter she has done this and never a hint of failure. She always puts a wee pinch of salt in before beginning, and thinks this helps her success. Many people dread whipping cream, drain it on a sieve and make great labor of what should be very simple; they must remember that the cream does not begin to thicken until there has been steady beating for a minute or two. The clock must be watched, as often results are expected too soon.

~Karn, W. A. (Druggist). The Art of Cooking Made Easy. Woodstock, 1903.