Chocolate is one of the most common ingredients dodged by Britons ahead of the indulgence of the Easter period.
While it’s easy to avoid in its most basic form of chocolate bars or biscuits, delicious desserts are much more tempting.
Luckily for those craving something sweet, Mary Berry has the perfect substitute recipe for fudgy brownies or a rich chocolate cake.
Her ginger spiced pudding is guaranteed to satisfy a sweet tooth thanks to the addition of rich brown sugar and black treacle, plus warming spices like nutmeg and cinnamon.
Sharing the recipe from her Real Food Fast collection, Mary described it as: “Delicious served cold as a cake without a toffee sauce or warm as a pudding.”
Method
A hot oven is essential to cook the pudding until soft and sticky, so start by preheating the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
Take a 1kg loaf tin and generously grease it with butter followed by a light dusting of the muscovado sugar.
Next, measure all the dry ingredients, except for the sugar, into a large bowl and stir well to combine. In a separate bowl combine the liquid ingredients including the sugar, egg, treacle, milk and melted butter and beat until smooth.
Now combine the wet ingredients with the dry to form the complete mixture, and stir well to ensure no lumps or streaks are left.
Pour the mixture into the loaf tin, which should only be half-full even when all the mixture has been moved into it. Smooth out the top a little by shaking the tin, then leave in the oven to cook for 35 minutes until dark in colour.
If it gets too dark before being fully cooked, cover loosely with foil. According to Mary, the best way to tell if the sponge is cooked is if it starts to shrink away from the sides of the tin and is springy to the touch.
When ready to serve, arrange in slices on a plate with a side of mango or toffee sauce.
