Winter has smacked me in the head like a soccer ball this year.  But, in practice of seeing the beauty in everything (even when I can’t feel my feet), finding the sweetness amongst it all is my saviour. With this in mind, Alice Nicholls serves us up something today to warm the cockles of your heart.  Her Self-Saucing Chocolate Pudding!  You’ve met Alice before here.  Go check her and her awesomeness out – but before you do, check out her delicious rendition of this old favourite.

Since giving up gluten and sugar I hadn’t tried to replicate this old favourite, though having a chat with Mum about it three days ago my mind conjured up an image of the fire, a crochet blanket and bowls of that Self-Saucing Chocolate Pudding that was so vivid I could have licked the back of an imaginary spoon. Mum rattled off the general quantities and I went home and (we) began – my daughter Holly a permanent sous chef on her stool in the kitchen.

To be honest with you, Holly (my daughter) actually made the cake, not me. I was only allowed to be on sauce duties. When I took the pudding out of the oven it had risen much more than I anticipated.  I swapped self-raising flour for buckwheat flour, cows milk for almond milk, rice malt syrup for sugar, cacao for cocoa and butter for olive oil.  So all in all – nothing like the original.  I also added some apple cider vinegar to activate the bicarbonate of soda.

The biggest test was whether Mum would like it as much as we did.  We sat her down, put a tea towel over her lap and ladled the chocolate sauce over the pudding. Sitting each side of their Nanna, my daughters like birds with their mouths open next to mum she barely got a taste. We gave her a second and then third bowl.

This self-saucing chocolate pudding has soul.
I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients – serves four
Pre-heat oven to 180C + Boil the kettle

Pudding
•    1 cup buckwheat flour (250ml)
•    2/3 cup almond milk (or milk of your choice)
•    1/3 cup raw cacao powder
•    1/3 cup olive oil
•    1/2 cup rice malt syrup
•    1 egg lightly beaten
•    1/2 tsp baking powder
•    1/4 tsp bicarb soda
•    1 tsp apple cider vinegar (this activates the bicarb and helps the pudding to rise)

Method
1.    Mix together until combined into a batter.
2.    Pour into a 20cm baking dish or 4 ramekin dishes

Chocolate sauce
•    1/4 cup raw cacao powder
•    1/3 cup rice malt syrup
•    2 tbls honey (optional, I like the rich flavour honey gives as rice malt syrup is very plain but you can omit if you like)
•    1 1/4 cups boiling water

Method
1.    Mix together
2.    Using a large spoon or spatula so you don’t damage the pudding batter, carefully pour the chocolate sauce over the back of the spoon or spatula into the baking dish over the batter*.  You don’t want to be too rough and break the mix up too much as it may end up with a sloppy texture – so just go slow.
3.    Bake in the oven* for 20-30 mins depending on your dish size until the center of the pudding is firm.
4.    Take out and dish up.

*The chocolate sauce will float on top and as the pudding cooks it sinks to the bottom of the baking dish
*It’s worth laying a tray under the rack that the baking dish is on to catch any sauce drips that may bubble over the side so you don’t end up with them burnt to the bottom of your oven.

Alice Nicholls is a Holistic Health Legend and the Director of The Whole Daily. Alice supports women to ‘Screw Beige’  through the successful ‘Life Transformation Project’, a 4 week eCourse on living, healing, eating and loving better.   Alice is a passionate advocate for real food and conscious living.  With a background in business, Alice has also lectured to over 900 women on creating a healthy social business in an online environment.  The Whole Daily was awarded the Top Women’s Empowerment Blog of 2013, Alice was awarded top 30 Health and Wellbeing Bloggers of 2014  and Alice has featured across International sites such as MindBodyGreen, Elephant Journal, Mamamia, The Kind Life with Alicia Silverstone, and has been seen on Network 10’s ‘Wake-Up’ show.

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