Chocolate moelleux with malted milk caramel

This chocolate pudding is my wintery version of the properly old school chocolate malted milkshake. When I was little my grandparents were still on the land and this invariably meant long car trips to visit on weekends, which my father seized as hours of unbridled opportunity to teach us many of life’s lessons. I learnt there is nothing more important than family. I can recite Archimedes principle to anyone who cares to know that “an object immersed in water is buoyed by a force equal to the weight of water it displaces.” I also learnt about the ins and outs of the perfect chocolate malted milkshake – the real kind - those you’d find at small country service stations and random isolated highway corner stores. I relished our stops for a choc-malted; to hear dad wax lyrical that all a good milkshake needs is four simple ingredients – whole milk, chocolate, malt and a heavy handed dollop of ice cream. We would give ourselves cold headaches when we “dined in”, seeing who could reach the bottom of the anodized metal tumbler first. And if the shake “was to go”, speed was equally important for fear of losing the contents of that palm tree emblazoned paper cup as it seeped onto your lap.  While I don’t get a car trip with the old man nearly as much I might like to these days, this pudding is an equally great way of celebrating all things chocolate and malt.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Chocolate Moelleux

170g dark chocolate

170g butter

170g light brown sugar

85g plain flour, sifted

4 egg yolks plus 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Malted milk caramel

150g condensed milk

3 tbsp malted milk powder (plus extra for serving)

Method

Prepare 4 ramekins by greasing and lining with baking paper.

Melt the chocolate with the butter in a saucepan over very low heat. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Combine the sugar and flour in a bowl.  Mix the melted chocolate with the eggs then add to the flour mixture. Divide the mixture between the ramekins until three quarters full.

To make the caramel add the condensed milk and malted milk powder to a saucepan. Place over a very low heat and cook, stirring constantly until the powder has dissolved. Remove from heat and pour into a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle (or you can just use a spoon to transfer the caramel to the puddings). Pop the nozzle into the middle of the chocolate mixture and squirt in the filling – the chocolate mixture will rise to the top. Place puddings in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake the puddings for 20 minutes or until the eges are firm and the centre feels slightly runny to the touch. Leave to rest for 2 minutes then gently turn them out onto serving plates. Dust over a little extra malt powder and serve immediately.