Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
Serves 8
Cooks Illustrated, May 2002

Why this recipe works:
Pudding cake is made by sprinkling brownie batter with a mixture of sugar and cocoa, pouring hot water on top, and baking. The best pudding cake recipe would be chocolaty, with the right balance of cake and pudding like sauce. For intense chocolate flavor in our chocolate pudding cake recipe, we combined Dutch-processed cocoa and bittersweet chocolate to make the cake layer. We added instant coffee to the water that we poured over the batter to cut sweetness. To promote a good crust and a silky sauce, we baked our Hot Fudge Pudding Cake slow and low, and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes before serving, allowing the sauce to become pudding like and the cake brownie like.

If you have cold, brewed coffee on hand, it can be used in place of the instant coffee and water, but to make sure it isn’t too strong, use 1 cup of cold coffee mixed with 1/2 cup of water. Serve the cake warm with vanilla or coffee ice cream. Leftovers can be reheated, covered with plastic wrap, in a microwave oven.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons instant coffee
• 1 ½ cups water
• 2/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (2 ½ ounces by weight)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (packed, 1 ¾ ounces by weight)
• 1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces by weight)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• ¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour (3 ¾ ounces by weight)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• ¼ teaspoon table salt
• 1 large egg yolk

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly spray 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Stir instant coffee into water; set aside to dissolve. Stir together 1/3 cup cocoa, brown sugar, and 1/3 cup granulated sugar in small bowl, breaking up large clumps with fingers; set aside. Melt butter, remaining 1/3 cup cocoa, and chocolate in small bowl set over saucepan of barely simmering water; whisk until smooth and set aside to cool slightly. Whisk flour and baking powder in small bowl to combine; set aside. Whisk remaining 2/3 cup sugar, vanilla, milk, and salt in medium bowl until combined; whisk in yolk. Add chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Add flour mixture and whisk until batter is evenly moistened.
2. Pour batter into prepared baking dish and spread evenly to sides and corners. Sprinkle cocoa/sugar mixture evenly over batter (cocoa mixture should cover entire surface of batter); pour coffee mixture gently over cocoa mixture. Bake until cake is puffed and bubbling and just beginning to pull away from sides of baking dish, about 45 minutes. (Do not over bake.) Cool cake in dish on wire rack about 25 minutes before serving.

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