Delaney Mes: Chocalicious (+recipes)

Chocolate cherry self saucing pudding. Photo / Doug Sherring

Cherries add a delicious pop of flavour to contrast with the warming flavours of a cosy chocolate pud on a cold winter’s night.

I always lean towards caramel or fruity desserts or cheesecake over chocolate. And although I'm not a die-hard chocaholic, I do love it, particularly the good-quality dark stuff. My friends and I used to make this classic self-saucing pudding when we were students. I've added cherries for their tart contrast.

Chocolate cherry self-saucing pudding

Serves 6

This is an adaptation of the classic Edmonds recipe.

100g butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp good-quality vanilla extract
1¼ cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp Dutch cocoa powder
1½ cups pitted morello cherries, drained
2 cups boiling water

Sauce
? cup brown sugar
¼ cup Dutch cocoa powder
1 Tbsp cornflour

1 Beat the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla, until combined. Sift over the flour, baking powder and cocoa. Gently combine with a spoon until well incorporated.

2 Take a medium oven-proof dish and scatter over the cherries. Spoon over the chocolate mixture.

3 Combine the sauce ingredients, then scatter evenly over the mixture in the dish. Carefully pour over the boiling water.

4 Bake at 180C for 35 minutes, until the pudding has risen and springy. Serve warm with mascarpone or runny cream.

Chocolate whisky ganache sauce

This rich ganache will make the most decadent hot-fudge sauce - serve over vanilla icecream or with poached pears.

Chocolate whisky ganache sauce. Photo / Doug Sherring

250ml cream
250g dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I used Whittaker's Dark Ghana)
2 Tbsp butter
Pinch sea salt
3 Tbsp whisky

1 In a small saucepan, gently melt together the cream and chocolate. Stir constantly as they melt, and add the other ingredients.

2 Remove from heat before all the chocolate is melted and swiftly mix together. The sauce will thicken and combine well as the last of the chocolate melts. Serve immediately.