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Wednesday 3 June 2009

Rum Chocolate Biscuit Pudding - and the cooking influences in my life



It is my Mother, who really was the first person to introduce me to how much fun I could have in the kitchen, who built the foundation for a lot of my recipes. As a working mother - she was a teacher, she still found time to delight us with all manners of curries, pasta, meatloaf, casseroles, stews, cakes and desserts. Meals were never a boring affair at our house and it was Mom that taught us all how to always try new foods.

The Lovely Wife, of course, is the one that has spurred me on to greater heights. She is the one that has made me expand my repertoire. The kids too have played their part in expanding my culinary skills and just like I have fond memories of my mother experimenting with new flavours in the kitchen and exposing us to different cuisines, I too hope that my own children will have similar memories of me.

Jamie Oliver always goes on about his wife Jules - but not many people know that I have my own Jules - my Aunty Julie. Aunty Jules is my father's third sister. He is the only boy in a family of four girls. Aunty Julie was always the sweet, demure Aunt. Full of smiles and cuddles with a little mischief thrown in. She was also the Dessert Queen. Oh my! The desserts Aunty Jules would throw together were nothing short of magnificent. We kids all thouhgt she was nothing short of brilliant with the desserts she would come up with.

One of her all time favourites - and ours - was this Rum Chocolate Biscuit Pudding. When I started to make desserts of my own, I asked her for this recipe and she happily passed it on to me.


I have to admit that I was surprised at how simple this was and I made some further experimentation on it. One of the things I did differently was to increase the amount of chocolate as well as add in some cocoa. I use almonds rather than cashew nuts and I melt the chocolate with all the cream rather than the original recipe that calls for half the cream to be melted with the chocolate. The most important change I have made, I think, is to mix the egg yolks together with the warm chocalate - so that the egg at least cooks a little.

So...after sufficient modification, I have claimed it as my own recipe!





This is what I do.



Ingredients
1/2 Cup Butter (125g)
3/4 Cup Castor Sugar
350ml Unsweetened Cream
2 Eggs (separated)
150gm Dark Chocolate
2 Tablespoons Cocoa
1/2 - 1 cup Chopped Cashews (or Almonds)
1 packet Marie Biscuits
1 cup milk
Brandy or Rum (Optional - I use liberal amounts - 4 to 6 tablespoons!!)


Method
Separate eggs, ensuring that egg whites have no yolk.
Melt chocolate with the cream over a slow fire. Ensure cream does not boil. Beat in egg yolks quickly. Leave to cool. Once cool, whip till slightly thick but not stiff.
Cream butter and 1/2 the sugar. Add in chocolate mixture and sifted cocoa. Add Rum (dependent on your alcoholic tendencies!)
Whisk egg whites till they peak and then add remaining sugar, whisking till nice and thick. Fold in egg whites to chocolate mixture. Stir in 75% of nuts.
Dip Marie Biscuits into milk (to soften slightly) and line a tray with one layer of biscuits. Cover biscuits with layer of mixture. Alternate with layers of biscuits and mixture (with final layer being mixture)
Sprinkle remaining nuts on top (this just makes it look good)
Chill for at least 3 hours but preferably overnight.



This is a very rich and decadent dessert that will be a definite crowd pleaser. I loved it as a child and I love it even more now - all thanks to my wonderful Aunty Jules!

17 comments:

maybelle's mom said...

What a nice post about your inspirations.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Lovely to have this recipe passed on to you from your Aunt Jules. The kids will be making it for their kids, and their kids....

fatboybakes said...

dharm, this looks divine, as always!

Ms. Kong Piang: said...

You forgot to mention friends, the people who pester you to keep making desserts until you can make such great stuff.

Thistlemoon said...

I loved this post Dharm! I think we all should talk more about our influences! This biscuit pudding looks so good!!! And I have no doubt that your kids will remember their childhood full of treats their daddy made!

breadchick said...

Dharm, I'm over here with my jaw hanging on my keyboard. That looks so GOOD and what a lovely tribute to your cooking influences.

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Great biscuit pudding, Dharm.
Reminds me of an "auntie" (we used to call elderly ladies who couldn't be otherwise classified) who was a friend of my mother's. She used to make a similar biscuit pudding (without the alcohol) but dipped the Marie biscuits in a coffee decoction. Yum. :)

Alicia Foodycat said...

That sounds so good! A very "family" sort of dish but still quite refined.

Soma said...

Another magic with marie! love the rum & the chocolate. I make a gateau with coffee, cream & the marie.

Elle said...

Dharm, It is so nice to hear about your culinary influences...and your children will surely benefit from all the great food you make for them. The dessert sounds wonderful and totally decadent. Are Marie biscuits what I would call ladyfingers? Sort of a sponge finger shaped sweet baked good?

Dharm said...

Elle,
A Marie Biscuit is also known as a Maria Biscuit and is like a tea biscuit but vanilla flavoured. Nothing at all like sponge fingers/ladys fingers/savoiardi. Maybe this link might help

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_
biscuit

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

How a recipe come to us and then evolves is always beautiful to me. Your pudding looks glorious.

Anonymous said...

HI, lovely to find our old sri lankan favourite online! just wanted to mention that it would be good ifyou had an option to print the recipe off your page. i couldnt find one. also would help if you leave out the background colour on the recipe so that printitng is economical! what can i say... i am after all sri lankan :)

Unknown said...

Hi this is fantastic. I made it twice and passed on the recipe to many. Many thanks for this great all time favourite Sri Lankan Pudding

Anonymous said...

thank you so much for passing this my sista used to make like this but we live in different country so she cant come n make n my mom dont know but i guess after this we r gonna try n make this :)

zarrah said...

Lovely recipe enjoyed making it as well as eating it.Thank you.

madhavi said...

I absolutely love this recipe for its simplicity, I've lost count of the number of times I've made it and and the number of people who have drooled over it!! Many thanks for the recipe. You have an amazing blog and methinks your children are very lucky to get designer birthday cakes :)