Steamed chocolate pudding: the king of desserts

I am an unapologetic pudding pusher. Now, by pudding, I don’t simply mean that more people should eat dessert – although I do think we might feel a little more sweetly-disposed towards others if that were the case – but the peculiarly British tradition of steamed sponge puddings. Once terribly popular, now they are criminally underrepresented in the pudding canon.

But for me, they are king. Far from their reputation of being dense or heavy – stodgy – proper steamed puddings are airy, fluffy, by far lighter than most cake sponges. In fact, many pudding ingredient lists are indistinguishable from those of cakes, it is only the cooking method which differs, and two identical recipes can result in entirely different puddings, depending on how you choose to cook them. This is because steaming is such a gentle way of cooking. Steaming uses indirect heat, and cooks the pudding more slowly, for a longer time than baking a pudding – so the chances of the pud drying out are minimal, leaving the finished pudding soft and springy, with a delicate crumb. This gentle cooking means that flavours stay bright, and fruits and sugars don’t catch or caramelise.

Steaming smooths out imperfections: it makes the dry deliciously damp, while the fudgy becomes light, impossibly fluffy. Marmalades, ginger, and citrus fruits become sticky, while dried fruit becomes plump and soft, and fresh fruit relaxes, its juices staining the sponge. Once turned out, their smooth domes beg for thick custard, or cold cream.

This is a simple chocolate pudding, no show-boating: a simple cocoa-based batter, the only additions are a little salt, and a small amount of coffee. Even if you’re not a fan of the drink, don’t skip the coffee: you won’t taste it, it will just bring the chocolate flavours to life. Using light brown sugar isn’t essential – it will work perfectly well with white, caster sugar – but it gives subtle caramel notes to the sponge.