Chocolate Cobbler,
originally uploaded by
ginnerobot.
a.k.a. Chocolate Pudding Cake
a.k.a. Devil's Float
I first heard about Chocolate Cobbler this past Wednesday on the Pioneer Woman's site.
All the ingredients were things we keep on hand; so I made a mental note to try it sometime.
Thursday, my Comcast internet connection wasn't very comcastic, and I found myself with extra time on my hands -- enough time to try out the recipe.
Mikesha said it was "ridiculous" -- meaning ridiculously tasty.
The dessert was so good that we decided we should make a larger version on Friday for our family night. And so we did.
And then tonight, after we spent most of the day painting our family room, we decided we needed a little something to reward ourselves for our hard work, and so we made another one.
One dessert, made three days in a row. Ridiculous!
By the way, we made the regular 8x8 version the first time. That's much too small when you have 10 people in the house.
The following is our 9x13 version:
Chocolate Cobbler
Ingredients
2 cups self-rising flour (or 2 cups all-purpose flour + 4 tsp baking powder + ½ tsp salt)
7/8 cup coca powder, divided (into 6 Tbsp and ½ cup)
2½ cup sugar, divided (into 1½ cup and 1 cup).
1 cup milk
2/3 cup melted butter
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 cups hot tap water
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°
Stir together the flour, 6 Tbsp cocoa, and 1½ cup sugar.
Stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
Spread the batter into a 9x13 baking dish.
In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, 1 cup light brown sugar, and ½ cup cocoa.
Sprinkle the sugar and cocoa mixture evenly over the batter.
Pour the hot tap water over everything. DO NOT STIR! (Yes, this looks weird; weird enough to call in the kids and show them just how weird it looks and say, “Can you believe this is going to turn into something good?”)
Bake for 40 minutes or until the center is set. (This took 40 minutes Friday, but 45 minutes Saturday -- maybe the weather was different?)
Don't bother trying to stick in a knife to see if it comes out clean -- it won't -- there's way too much gooey goodness inside. Just look (or even prod with a finger) to see if the top of the cobbler in the center is firm. You should notice that some chunks of cobbler will be a little higher than the surroundings. These will be little ‘islands’, similar to cake-like brownies, which should spring back when prodded.
You won't know this yet, but those ‘islands’ are floating on a sea of chocolate sauce that somehow formed all over the bottom of the pan. This is magical stuff!
To serve, allow to cool a little (or not -- it's that good!), then plate up a good-sized spoonful (or two) of cobbler, ladle the chocolate sauce from the pan bottom over the cobbler, and add a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice-cream on the side.
Be careful! It's addicting!