Hot Fudge Pudding with Sauce.

Pour a cocoa-sugar sauce over raw chocolate batter, slide it in the oven, and 40 minutes later you have a warm cake sitting on top of a pool of hot fudge. The magic of self-saucing pudding cakes never gets old.

The batter is straightforward: flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and salt with shortening cut in, then egg and milk stirred together until the flour is just moistened. Don’t overmix. You want it barely combined, lumps and all.

The sauce layer (sugar, cocoa, a little water, and 2 cups of hot water) gets poured slowly over the batter before baking. During baking, the cake rises through the liquid and the sauce sinks to the bottom, concentrating into thick, fudgy goodness.

Kitchen Tips

• Pour the sauce slowly over the back of a spoon to distribute it evenly without disturbing the batter underneath.
• Use hot water for the sauce, not warm or cold. Hot water dissolves the sugar and cocoa better and creates a smoother sauce layer.
• The cake is done at 40 minutes even though the sauce underneath still looks liquidy. That’s correct. It thickens as it sits.
• Serve warm with cold milk or a pour of cream. The contrast between the hot fudge sauce and cold dairy is what makes this dessert special.

Variations

• Add a teaspoon of espresso powder to the sauce mixture for a mocha fudge pudding.
• Drop spoonfuls of peanut butter on the batter before pouring the sauce for a chocolate-PB version.
• Use brown sugar instead of white in the sauce for a deeper, more caramel-tinged chocolate flavor.