German Chocolate Steamed Pudding

This is a guest post from my husband. My favorite cake is German Chocolate Cake and he wanted to make one for me since today is my birthday! He wanted to make something different, so he decided to make a chocolate pudding and then top it with the traditional coconut pecan frosting. It’s the frosting that really makes the cake so good.

This pudding recipe is from the BBC. Puddings are very common in England; in fact, “pudding” has become a synonym for “dessert.” A couple of the British cookbooks that we own have a pudding chapter, which includes all the dessert recipes. Puddings are typically cooked by steaming and we use a special pudding basin. It’s just a tapered ceramic bowl, and you could certainly use a heatproof bowl of any sort, it would just have a different shape. I’m sure it would still taste as good.

The pudding is quick to put together but then takes a while to steam, so you do have to have some patience. This pudding steamed for 1-1/2 hours, which seems like a long time but many puddings that he makes will steam for 3 hours. The pudding is nice and moist, but it still tastes a lot like a normal baked cake. The steaming ensures that it doesn’t dry out. It was nice and light and had a good chocolate flavor. It’s not too sweet, but the frosting is sweet so it works out well. The only drawback to a steamed pudding is that you have to eat it right away, but it makes about 4 servings so that’s not too hard to finish off. We enjoyed eating this pudding right up!

2 oz. dark/bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
4 oz. plain flour
4 oz. sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
½ cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp grated nutmeg
3oz hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

Lightly grease a 2 pint pudding basin (or heatproof bowl) with butter. Fill a large pot with a steamer insert with water and bring to a boil. Melt the chocolate and set aside.

Combine the remaining ingredients, except for the hazelnuts, in a food processor or mixer and blend for one minute at low speed. Add the melted chocolate and blend for one minute at high speed. Fold in the hazelnuts. Spoon the batter into the basin. Cover with a lid or parchment paper tied securely with string.

Put the basin in the steamer insert of your pan. Cook over a medium heat for about 1-1½ hours or until a knife or skewer inserted into the centre of the pudding comes out clean. Remove the pudding from the pan and allow to cool for ten minutes. Run a knife around the edge to loosen and invert on to a serving dish. Top with frosting and serve.

Frosting
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup white sugar
3 egg yolk, beaten with 1 teaspoon water
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup flaked coconut

In a large saucepan combine evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, margarine and vanilla. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick. Remove from heat and stir in pecans and coconut. Spread on cake while still warm.

Pudding recipe from BBC. Frosting recipe from All Recipes