You may be starting to think I am obsessed with the Better Homes and Gardens magazine – I don’t think I am but they are just full of such amazing recipes that seem to tempt me from the pages taunting ‘Go on you can do this or don’t you think you are good enough? Come on surely you want to have a mouthful of this culinary perfection?’. As you already know I have an addictive personality but I’m also competitive so I just can’t say no!
I’m actually not sure which magazine addition or year this recipe is from as I didn’t keep the magazine and I cut the recipe from the page with a pair of scissors. Now the photo below doesn’t look too pleasing to the eye but I have a valid reason for this. When I got to work to store this wicked specimen, I discovered the fridges at work don’t have freezer compartments. I know….. I was as shocked as you are but what will really astound you is that in all the years I have worked there, opening and closing the fridge to store my lunch, I have never noticed they didn’t have freezer comartments! I am clearly not an observant person. You may wonder why would I want to freeze this when the recipe indicates to refrigerate. Well our fridges are accessed by over 50 people throughout the day, and with the continual opening and closing, the fridge doesn’t maintain its temperature. This meant that on the day I presented my creation it had started to melt (and I had to leave the springform base attached) however this did not detract from the taste. Just in case you are highly influenced by appearances I’ve attached the photo from the magazine which I had kept with the cut out recipe. In case you are not sure mine is the first one pictured. 🙂
Can I just say this is a truly wonderful pudding. Sinful is the best way to describe it and I swear I saw my work colleagues protecting their slices whilst nervously looking around to ensure no one was going to steal a spoonful. The hazelnut and choc chip shortbread base provides the perfect platform for the fluffy and decadent mousse to rest on and the maltesers give that malty texture which crescendos with every mouthful. There are no other words for it you just have to make it yourself.
Seriously Sinful Choc-Hazelnut Pudding from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine
Ingredients:
- 75g whole hazelnuts
- melted butter, for greasing
- 150g choc-chip shortbread biscuits, crushed (if you can’t find them I bought a plain shortbread and threw in a handful of choc chips)
- Extra 50g butter, melted
- 200g 70% dark chocolate (I used milk chocolate and it was awesome!)
- 400ml thickened cream
- 3 eggs, separated
- 50g caster sugar
- 4 tablespoons of Frangelico liqueur (and extra half teaspoon for you)
- 75g Nutella
- 50g Maltesers, lightly crushed
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180oC. Put hazelnuts on an oven tray and roast for 5 minutes. Transfer to a clean tea towel and roll around to remove skins.
- Grease a 20cm springform cake tin with melted butter and line with baking paper.
- Put 50g of the hazelnuts in a food processor, pulse until chopped, then transfer to a bowl. Put shortbread in food processor, and pulse to create crumbs. Add to hazelnut, then add extra butter and stir to combine.
- Press mixture into base of prepared tin. Smooth with the back of a spoon and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Melt chocolate and 100ml of the cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in egg yolks. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Beat eggwhites in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating well, until mixture is thick and glossy. Add a large spoonful of eggwhite mixture to chocolate mixture and gently fold in using a metal spoon. Fold in remaining eggwhite mixture until combined.
- Pour onto biscuit base and put in fridge for 2 hours or until firm.
- Put remaining cream and liqueur in a medium bowl and whisk until softly whipped. Swirl through Nutella and ½ of the Maltesers. Top mousse with cream mixture.
- To serve, dip a clean tea towel in hot water and run it around the outside of the cake tin a few times to loosen pudding. Remove from tin and serve scattered with remaining hazelnuts and Maltesers.
Serves: 12
Complexity Rating:
– Time is required.
Taste Rating: 
Party-in-my-mouth!
