The Great British Bake Off is one my favorite shows, inspiring new bakes, new flavors, and new techniques! Join me on my journey to bake through all the Season 8 Challenges.
Total Cooking Time: 30 minutes
The Great British Bake Off is a classic show for bakers and those looking for a friendly competition. All the bakes on the show look delicious and I often want to try baking them myself! I finally got off the couch and into the kitchen to recreate some of the recipes from Bake Off! I chose to start with season eight of Bake Off as it is my favorite season and the one with some of my favorite challenges!
The Week 5 Technical is something I was very excited about: Molten Chocolate Pudding!! Who doesn’t like chocolate? Especially that gooey center! That sounds absolutely irresistible! This was quite a challenge, and I definitely underestimated the difficulty of this challenge. My baking instinct betrayed be for this pudding (cake). But that’s what a technical challenge is all about so let’s get to it!
Check out the Season 8 Great British Bake Off Page to see other bakes from the series or the Make section for more recipes!
Ingredients
The ingredients for this pudding surprised me. It was mostly chocolate and eggs. I thought that, since it was a cake, there would be a decent amount of flour but there was very little! Only a couple of tablespoons! This pudding also had butter and sugar but it’s a relatively low amount of ingredients.
Process
01
Prepping the Chocolate
The main ingredient in a molten chocolate pudding is chocolate!! But the chocolate must be melted down before it can be added to the pudding. For this, I used a double broiler as it helps melt the chocolate more evenly while preventing the chocolate from burning over the direct heat. I also added the butter into this mixture because I wanted a non-burnt liquid butter as well and mixing the two fats together felt like the right choice.
02
Creating a Base
For the base of the pudding, I used a lot of eggs. More eggs than I expected. This needed two whole eggs and two additional egg yolks. Then I added the sugar and salt and whisked the mixture like there was no tomorrow. This is making a pseudo meringue, but it has egg yolks. The whisking caused the eggs turn to a very pale yellow and become very fluffy.
03
Folding Folding Folding
The last step before baking is folding the chocolate and flour into the egg mixture. Folding is a very gentle process because you don’t want to lose all of the air that you just whipped into the eggs. The step always makes my arm a little tired because folding is a slow process that I always try to do quickly
04
Baking
Now it’s time to bake! I spooned the batter into greased ramakins and placed the ramakins on the baking sheet. Then it’s time to pop the puddings into the oven! This step will feel like you’re underbaking the pudding and you’re right! You are! I was nervous that it hadn’t baked enough and left it in the oven too long… And guess what? Yup! I have a very small molten middle instead of a ooey gooey flow of molten chocolate goodness.
Reflections
Am I ready for bake-off? No… wait… maybe? Like, yes it didn’t go as well as I would have liked it, but the result was still delicious! And this seemed like a difficult challenge for many within the baking realm. It really does against my baking instincts to take something out of the oven before it’s done! My nerves definitely got the better of me but this is something I would gladly try again.
Lessons
What is Folding?
Folding allows for ingredients to be incorporated into a mixture without losing all the air in some of the ingredients. The best technique I found it a cut and scrape method. I like to cut through the center of everything and then scrape around the side of the bowl. Turn and repeat until everything is mixed!
Molten Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients
- ½ Cup Unsalted Butter
- 1 Cup Bittersweet Chocolate
- 2 Eggs
- 2 Egg Yolks
- ¼ Cup Granulate Sugar
- 1 Pinch of Salt
- 2 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 450F. Butter five6-oz ramakins and set aside on a baking sheet.
- In a double broiler, over simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate together.
- As the chocolate melts, in a heatproof bowl, whisk together the eggs, eggs yolks, sugar and salt at high speed until thickened and pale.
- When the butter and chocolate are fully melted, fold the mixture into the egg mixture along with the flour.
- Spoon the batter into the ramekins and bake for 12 minutes or until the sides of the cakes are firm but the centers are soft.
- Let pudding cool in the ramekins for 1 minute then quickly unmold and serve immediately.
- Enjoy!!