Wobbly Middle Chocolate Pudding

Yes, thats right, a recipe for a gluten free wobbly middle chocolate pud - Divine!

Straightforward to make, these are an impressive dinner party pud based on the recipe by Nigel Slater in his Kitchen Diaries book.

Melting Middle Chocolate Pudding - makes 4 individual puddings

Ingredients:

200g fine quality gluten free chocolate - Lindt, Rococo, Montezumas
3 eggs
100g caster sugar
60g butter
2 heaped teaspoons chocolate hazlenut spread

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200C and butter 4 ramekins

Slowly melt the chocolate in a pan suspended over a pan of hot water, or gently in the microwave
Seperate the eggs and beat the sugar with the yolks in a food processor or with an electric beater until thick and creamy.

In a seperate bowl whisk the egg whites until forming stiff peaks.

Stir the butter and chocolate spread into the melted chocolate and leave until melted.

Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg and sugar mixture, then carefully fold in the egg whites with a metal spoon to ensure you keep all the air in.

Take care not to overmix, but ensure there are no leftover swathes of egg whites.

Divide the mixture between the ramekins and place on a baking sheet.

Bake in the oven for between 12 and 15 minutes. When they are cooked they will be well risen and leave no mixture on a skewer when slid into the middle if the pudding. Ideally you want them to be slighly wobbly in the middle - as the name suggests.

For a little suprise, I dropped a dollop of my homemade cherry jam into the ramekins before adding the mixture.

Gluten Free Thrift

Since being gluten free my sweet tooth has subsided substantially, and cakes are now the rare treat they should be, rather than the daily indulgence they were. Delving into A Cooks Guide to Grains by Jenni Muir, I came across a recipe for Almond cake which can use buckwheat flour instead of barley flour to make this naturally gluten free.



As is often the case with gluten free cakes, unfortunately they were a little dry and heavy, but conscious of waste - and in need of a sweet treat I made them into mini Victoria Sponges using fresh local cream and my homemade cherry jam - Sweet!

Gluten free Gnocchi

You may expect something that is made from potatoes to be gluten free... but this is not the case with shop bought gnocchi. This italian staple is great comfort food at this time of year and much easier to make than intially anticipated.

This recipe is based on the basic gnocchi recipe on Italian cookery bible - Silver Spoon, but uses potato flour (or potato starch) in place of the wheatflour. The amounts below make enough for four reasonable portions - including super quick supper simple gnocchi with pesto, olive oil and parmesan. Only problem is it uses half a beaten egg - as 1kg of potatoes seemed enough to feed an Italian army... I used the leftovers to make gluten free brownies. Shame.

Potato Gnocchi
Ingredients
500g potatoes
80g potato flour
Half a beaten egg
Salt

Method

Steam the potatoes for 25 minutes - of until completely soft and mash into a bowl while still hot.

Stir in the flour, egg and a pinch of salt then knead to make a soft dough.

NOTE - be careful with the ratio of potato to flour. Too much flour and the dough makes the gnocchi like bullets. Not enough they disintergrate on boiling.

Shape the dough into long rolls about 1.5cm diameter and cut into 2cm lengths.

Press them gently with a fork to flatten slightly with indentations and arrange on a clean towel dusted with flour.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and drop in the gnocchi a few at a time, removing them when they float to the surface.

Keep cooked ones on warm plate before dousing with your chosen sauce such as a meaty ragu or pesto.

NOTE - to keep, do not cook them in the water. Store them in an airtight container until you want to eat them. Then just drop into a pan of boiling water as above.