Comfort food for Autumn

I officially declare this my new favourite comfort dessert.

Autumn has well and truly descended upon Melbourne in its unpredictable humid days and cold snaps. For those cool days there is a need for a rich dessert to curl up on the couch with.

Chocolate and pear self-saucing pudding

Serves 4

Pudding

1 cup self raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
80g butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

2 Beurre Bosc pears, sliced or finely chopped

Sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups boiling water

Preheat oven to 180 celsius. Grease a baking dish with butter. Sift flour and cocoa into a large bowl and add brown sugar. Combine butter, milk and egg in a jug. Slowly whisk into flour mixture until smooth. Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish. I then layered sliced pear over the mixture; however next time I will finely chop the pears and stir them through the mixture.

To make the sauce, combine the remaining brown sugar and cocoa and pour over the pudding mixture. Slowly pour boiling water over the back of a large metal spoon to cover pudding (this helps to ensure the mixture isn't disturbed too much). Place dish onto a baking tray. Bake for 35 minutes or until pudding bounces back when lightly touched. Serve hot with thickened cream.

I halved this recipe for the two of us and baked it for 20 minutes.

Mmmmhmmmm!