Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

This past week I had the inspiration to start a food blog. I know what you're thinking, isn't everyone starting a food blog? Perhaps it's because I finally got around to watching the movie "Julie and Julia," in which Julie blogs about her experiences attempting to cook Julia Child's recipes. Perhaps it's because we just took Sabrina for allergy testing, which confirmed that she really is allergic to certain foods, including soy, shellfish, some tree nuts, and possibly corn. Or perhaps it's because we just got back from visiting my parents for Christmas and I realized that it's getting more and more complicated for other people to make food for my family and me. In light of this, I would like to create a blog for our friends and family to help them out in the case that they want to cook for us, and for me so that I will remember the recipes and ingredients that taste good and work for my family.

For New Year's Eve Michael and I had two other couples over for dessert and bubbly alcoholic drinks. The two women who came are confessed chocoholics, just like I am, so I decided to make hot fudge pudding cake. This dessert is also my father-in-law's favorite, which he requests whenever he visits us or we visit him. It is ridiculously good. In one 8"x8" Pyrex pan you have rich chocolate cake on the top and a hot gooey chocolate pudding on the bottom. It serves 6 people easily, or 8 people if they are willing to share. If you don't already have the recipe, you can ask me or find it at www.cooksillustrated.com.


Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

from "Cook's Illustrated," May & June 2002, pp. 24-25

Ingredients that I used to modify the recipe:

• 2/3 cup Ghirardelli All Natural Premium Baking Cocoa, Natural Unsweetened Cocoa

• 2 ounces of Baker's bittersweet chocolate. If you cannot find this particular chocolate, look for another bittersweet chocolate with about 70% cacao that does not contain any milk fat or other milk products in it.

• 3/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free flour

• 2 tsp. homemade baking powder, made by combining 4/3 tsp. cream of tartar and 2/3 tsp. baking soda

• 1 Tbsp. Trader Joe's alcohol-free vanilla extract. If you cannot find Trader Joe's vanilla, then try to buy an alcohol-free vanilla extract that also does not contain corn syrup.

• 1/3 cup Lactaid milk
  

• 1/4 tsp. sea salt. Check to make sure there are not any anti-caking agents added.

Other ingredients:

• The other ingredients are ones that you probably have on hand: brown sugar, granulated sugar, unsalted butter, and 1 large egg yolk.

Optional ingredients:

• The cake can be served with vanilla ice cream. Since dairy products don't agree with me and the girls, I would recommend getting a coconut "ice cream" called Purely Decadent Made With Coconut Milk non-dairy frozen dessert. This ice cream is so good that we eat it even when we don't have the hot fudge pudding cake to go with it.