Chocolate puddings

To celebrate our return from sunny France to rainy Gateshead we made chocolate puddings for tea.

Makes four small puddings - they were brilliant with blackberries from the allotment, and a scoop of ice cream.

You'll need:

50g butter
50g sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
50g self-raising flour

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. You'll need four little ramekin dishes, or something similar that's oven proof. The puddings stuck slightly to my glass dishes, so make sure to butter them well.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the egg (you could do all this in the food processor, to speed things up). Add the cocoa powder, and gently mix (if you're overenthusiastic it tends to erupt in powdery clouds all over the kitchen flour). Ditto with the flour.

Divide the mixture into the four dishes, and place on a baking tray (this makes it easier to get them in and out of the oven). Bake for 15-20 minutes, until they've risen, and are firm to the touch.

Eat rapidly - they're better warm than cold.