Chocolate-chestnut self-saucing puddings

Winter is back with its chilly temperature, violent winds and torrents of rain, which makes it the perfect day for warm, gooey chocolate pudding.

I will probably be making quite a few chocolate/decadent desserts whilst the last eleven days of Winter fly by, after all, it will not be back for another nine months and I doubt I shall want such heavy and self-indulgent desserts in warm weather.


ease: 4.5/5.
prep time: 30mins.
cooking time: 25mins.
total: 55mins.

taste:4/5. Hubby liked these even though he found them a bit rich. I am a chocoholic but I actually find desserts made with cocoa rather than chocolate too rich for me. I didn't have shallow 2cup bowls so I used 6 1 & 1/2cup ramekins so they took a little longer to cook.
The cake itself has a deep cocoa taste and is also a little dry, which is fine as there was plenty of the thick, also heavy, sauce at the bottom of the dish. I couldn't really taste the chestnut in the chocolate cakes, but it came through the cream (I didn't add the Marsala as I thought it might overpower the chestnut).
The sauce had a stronger Marsala taste, with the raisins, unless you actually bite into a raisin you can't taste them. These were lovely enough, but I couldn't eat more than 3 spoonfuls. I can't seem to find a Dutch-process cocoa which might give a different taste to the regular baking cocoa I use, and not make it as rich and overpowering.
Side note: I actually found these to be less rich the next day after being heated up in the microwave.

would I make it again: No. I'd prefer a chocolate molten/lava cake to a pudding with sauce down the bottom.

recipe: chocolate-chestnut self-saucing puddings