Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding

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This is a soft and moist pudding with morsels of melty chocolate in between and a chocolate sauce.

Growing up, my sister used to bake us a chocolate pudding. Somehow, that recipe seems to have been misplaced. I was determined however, to try and re-create it. Dare I say we may have actually stumbled across a better invention !

I love making this in winter, as it is warm and hearty (and lord, is it chocolaty too!). I literally have to throw everything into a bowl and mix, pop it in the oven and a half hour later,you have yourself a delicious dessert.

This dessert pairs well with a scoop of ice-cream, some whipped cream or even yogurt to cut the richness. Given how decadent it is, a little goes a long way (though many may disagree).

The addition of the ground almonds is an optional extra, as not everyone has these lying around, but I think they really add to making the pudding really soft.

The only “trick” to this is to bake it in a dish that is not too large or some of the sauce at the bottom will dry up whilst baking. I found the pudding to be much more saucy when I baked it in a smaller dish.

If you make this recipe, please share it with me by tagging me on Instagram @adventureswithsugar or on Facebook at Adventures with Sugar.

Please note that this recipe was last updated on 10 July 2025. I have simply doubled the ratio’s as I found that I want to make this for a crowd and it never goes to waste in our home. You are welcome to halve the recipe if you want to make a smaller batch. Just ensure you use a smaller baking dish, so that the sauce does not dry up. I have included the quantities in brackets if you want to make a smaller version. Increase the oven temperature to 180 degrees celcius and reduce the baking time to 30 – 35 minutes.

CHOCOLATE SELF-SAUCING PUDDING (DOUBLE BATCH SERVES 10 – 12)

250ml milk (125ml)
4 tsp instant coffee granules (optional) (2 teaspoons)
120g unsalted butter, melted (60g)
2 tsp vanilla essence (1 teaspoon)
2 large eggs (around 50g outside the shell) (1 egg)
240g self-raising flour (120g)
60g cocoa powder (30g)
1 tsp salt (1/2 teaspoon)
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
120g muscavado sugar (60g)
100g brown sugar (50g)
40g finely ground almonds (20g)
100g milk chocolate, roughly chopped (50g)

METHOD

Preheat the oven: Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celcius. Grease a baking dish, measuring 30cm x 20cm x 6cm with some butter. Make sure it is not too large, or the sauce will dry up as it bakes in the oven.
Combine the wet ingredients: Place the coffee granules into the milk and microwave until the milk is warm and you are able to dissolve the granules. Do not worry if it does not dissolve completely. Then add in the melted butter, vanilla essence and eggs and mix to combine.
Combine the dry ingredients: Add the flour, cocoa powder, ground almonds, salt, cinnamon and both sugars to a bowl and whisk to combine.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients: Add the milk and egg mixture, gradually to the flour mixture and whisk together to form a thick batter.
Add chocolate and place in a bowl: Stir in the roughly chopped chocolate and place into the greased dish, levelling out the top.

CHOCOLATE SAUCE

100g muscavado sugar (50g)
75g brown sugar (35g)
50g cocoa powder(25g)
750ml boiling water (375ml)

METHOD

Combine the sugar and cocoa: Stir the sugars and cocoa together and sprinkle this mixture over the pudding batter.
Add the boiling water to the pudding: Pour the boiling water slowly onto a large serving spoon and let it fall into the pudding. Pouring this over the back of a large spoon allows it to soften the fall of the water and does not make large pools of water in the bake.
Bake: Bake for 45 – 50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the sponge part comes out clean. The top of the pudding should look set, but it will still be loose and seem like it is floating a bit. This is the sauce part of the pudding and is completely normal.
Serving suggestion: Let the pudding stand for 10 minutes for the sauce to settle a bit, before serving. Spoon generous portions into a bowl, and serve it with whipped cream, double thick cream/yogurt or my suggestion which is vanilla bean ice cream.