Chocolate Cobbler also known as a self-saucing pudding, may be the easiest dessert you’ll ever make. With just a few ingredients you probably have in your pantry you can make the best gooey chocolate pudding cake. All you need is some hot water and an oven and you have a no-fail dessert that will curb your chocolate craving.
Last Minute Dessert
When you’re craving something chocolate, you can whip up this chocolate dessert with ingredients from your pantry. No advance planning involved. You’ll have dessert in hand, in 40 minutes. Grab some vanilla ice cream!
This is one of those desserts that is always our fall back dessert. It’s comfort food at it’s finest. You can’t mess it up, the magic occurs when you start with a chocolate base and top with sugar and cocoa powder. Then pour hot water over the top and bake. The result is a gooey brownie like dessert that is gooey. Not as firm as a brownie and not as runny as pudding – somewhere in between.
You may have heard it called chocolate pudding cake or self-saucing pudding but it’s nothing like my decadent chocolate pudding recipe, it’s warm and gooey and great with vanilla ice cream.
This Will Become Your New Favorite Dessert
- You probably have all the ingredients, there are no eggs needed, just butter and milk and you can get by without milk.
- It comes together in no time – 10 minutes to prep.
- No equipment needed, all you need is a bowl and a spoon.
You can also make a self-saucing pudding with fruit, try a peach pudding cake or a blueberry self-saucing pudding for something different, both have hot water poured over the top and, like this recipe, it makes its own sauce.
This is Too Simple to Make
Step 1: Make a cookie dough layer
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt with melted butter and milk. It will be a thick cookie like dough. Add chocolate chips.
Step 2: Sprinkle the top
Combine more cocoa powder, brown and white sugar and sprinkle this over the batter.
Step 3: Pour water on top
DO NOT STIR. Just let it sit on top and place it in the oven to bake for 30 minutes. The top will be slightly firm but the bottom will be gooey.
Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
How do you reheat self-saucing chocolate pudding
If you happen to have leftovers, the best way to reheat this is to place it in a 350º oven and let it get warm. It might not be quite as gooey as it is fresh out of the oven but it will still have some liquid chocolate on the bottom and it’ll taste just as yummy.
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Ingredients
- 1¼ cups sugar divided
- 1 cup flour
- 6 tablespoons cocoa powder divided
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup milk
- ⅓ cup butter melted
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1½ cups hot water
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Stir together 3/4 cup sugar, flour, 3 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Stir in milk, butter, and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Add chocolate chips. Spread into an un-greased 8-inch square glass baking pan or large pie pan. ( it will be very thick)
- In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, and 3 tablespoons cocoa. Sprinkle evenly over batter. Pour hot water over the top. Do not stir.
- Bake for 35-38 minutes, or until center is almost set. Let stand for 15 minutes, then serve. Great served with vanilla ice cream.
Notes
Recipe Tips
- The water does not have to be boiling but hotter than what you can get from the tap. Try heating in a microwave for about 5 minutes.
- Don’t be tempted to stir it once the water is added, just pour it on top and put it in the oven.
- Chocolate chips are optional, it will still be pudding like without the chocolate chips.
- To reheat, just put in the oven at 350º for a few minutes and it will get gooey again.
Nutrition
I first published this recipe for Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding on my Southern food blog Butter and Baggage.
Curious…your description says WATER NOT RECOMMENDED but acceptable if you don’t have milk but your directions only state water..🤔 which do you recommend?
You must pour hot water over the top. However, if you don’t have milk, you can use water in the batter instead of milk in a pinch. I hope that explains things better.
Serious chocolate alert! SO good!!! So easy too. I prepped while my dinner was in the oven, popped it in once that was done and the timing was perfect. Only annoyance was having to figure out how much 1/3 cup of butter was (76 grams/2.7 ounces)