Hot puddings
Caramel and peanut butter squares
Makes 16 | Preparation time 10 minutes | Baking time 20 minutes | Oven temperature 170° C
You need
• 1 cup (250 g) butter
• 1 cup caramel sugar
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon caramel essence
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• pinch of salt
• ½ cup peanut butter
Here’s how
1 Preheat the oven. Cream the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until it’s a light colour. (You can also use an electric mixer.) Add the eggs, milk and caramel essence and mix until smooth. Add the flour and salt and mix to make a smooth batter.
2 Line a baking tray (23 x 23 cm) with baking paper. Pour the batter into the tray and spread it out evenly. Drop small scoops of peanut butter into the batter.
3 Bake for about 20 minutes or until cooked. Set the pan aside to cool before you cut the squares. These squares are delicious when they’re still lukewarm and served with caramel sauce. (See recipe on page 165.)
Chocolate cups
Makes about 12 | Preparation time 10 minutes, plus cooling time | Baking time 12 – 15 minutes | Oven temperature 180° C
You need
• 170 g softened butter
• 1 cup caramel sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons custard powder
• 70 g chocolate, very finely chopped or grated
• melted chocolate and ice cream, to serve
Here’s how
1 Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is a light colour – use a wooden spoon or an electric mixer. Mix in the egg and vanilla essence. Sieve the flour, baking powder and custard powder into the mixture and add the chocolate. Mix the ingredients with your hands until you have a smooth dough. Shape the dough into a flat disc, cover it with wax paper and put it in the fridge for half an hour.
2 Preheat the oven. Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll the dough out until it’s about 5 mm thick. Use a palette knife to loosen the dough from the work surface before cutting out dough circles big enough to cover the outside of a muffin pan.
3 Grease the underside of the muffin pan with cooking spray and shape the cut circles carefully over the mould, pressing down to form a smooth surface. (We used a cookie cutter with a 12 cm diameter, but you can use any size as long as your circles fit over the cups.)
4 Bake the biscuits for 12 – 15 minutes or until cooked. Let them cool down before you carefully lift them off the muffin cups and onto a cooling rack to set.
5 Brush melted chocolate on the inside of the cups (this will prevent them from becoming soggy) and serve with your favourite ice cream.
tip
The chocolate splinters need to be as finely chopped as possible. Bigger pieces of chocolate will melt and cause
