Raspberry Pavlova Chocolate Brownie Pudding

There has been a bit of a glut of raspberries at my house recently, and I thought that, rather than piling copious quantities onto my cereal each morning, it might be nice to put some of them to better use - in some kind of free-from baking experiment! 

My first thought was to bake some raspberry chocolate brownies, which I've made before. But, unable to find a new brownie recipe I was happy with (after a whole 5 minutes scrolling through Google's suggestions), I 'invented' a recipe for a deliciously damp cake... flavoured with delicate orange blossom, orange zest and zingy fresh raspberries, and with a drizzle of tart raspberry and orange coulis over the top. The coulis, in the end, seemed rather unnecessary with such a moist dessert, but to paraphrase Nigella - when is cake ever about necessity? I will post the recipe for that one soon!

So after the initial fruitless (haha) quest for a gluten-free chocolate brownie recipe, I eventually (the next day) came up with this ever-so-slightly lighter, more pudding-y variation. It works well with the citrussy raspberry coulis, and is delicious served slightly warm, with lactose- or dairy-free ice cream.






Ingredients

100g dairy-free butter
150g dark (70%) chocolate
60g gluten-free self raising flour (I used Doves Farm)
40g ground almonds
50g dark brown soft sugar
150g caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp xantham gum (optional)
A couple of handfuls of raspberries

Method

1. Grease a fairly deep ~8x8" baking dish, or several oven-proof ramekins, and preheat the oven to 160C. 
2. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt with the butter in a heatproof bowl - either over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave (I used the defrost setting and kept stirring regularly). When fully melted and mixed, leave to stand and cool down a little, and stir in the vanilla extract.
3. Combine the flour, ground almonds, brown sugar, cocoa powder, about half the caster sugar (75g) and xantham gum, if using, in a large bowl.
4. Beat the egg whites using an electric mixer until forming soft white peaks, and then beat in the remaining ~75g caster sugar.
5. Add the buttery chocolate mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until almost combined, then add the egg yolks. 
6. Gently fold in the egg white mixture in 3-4 stages - the first few spoonfuls of the egg whites added to the cake batter will help loosen the mixture, and help make the cake light and spongy. At this point stir the raspberries into the loosened mix. 
7. The last spoonfuls of egg white should be only slightly mixed into the batter, so the cake is marbled with seams of gooey meringue. 
8. Spread evenly in the baking dish or ramekins and bake for about 30-35 minutes.
9. Enjoy simply on its own, or serve warm with your choice of cream or ice-cream, and a chocolate sauce or raspberry coulis.

 I was slightly over-enthusiastic with folding in the egg whites, so there isn't as much marbled meringue-y-ness within the pudding as I'd hoped. You live and learn!

Maia x