Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding by Marks and Spencer [englisch]
A divine chocolate pudding/cake with a melting middle. The first and best I’ve had so far. Can you please open a branch in Germany, M&S?!
I’m in heaven…
is the song that crosses my mind when I eat the M&S Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding combined with a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice-cream. It’s black and white, hot and cold, heaven and hell -it’s the most addictive combo ever.
It was back in the year 2008 when I first experienced Marks & Sparks. I was a team leader at a language school in London Ealing (yes, Ealing). We were staying in host families and my „mother“ served the Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding as a dessert one night. In general, we had a lot of M&S food, especially for lunch. I instantly fell in love with their food. I have never seen anything like them in Germany (or elsewhere). In fact, I got so excited about the M&S food that I created the mock-up „Lonely Planet – M&S Food Hall ed.“ and started my own „The M&S Taste“ Tumblr blog where I review M&S food products. And here comes my favourite:
The M&S Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding
It comes in a paper box, fresh from the fridge and should be consumed asap -this one’s best before date was about 2 weeks after I bought it. However, I put it in my suitcase. Thus, it was about 4 hours out of the fridge (and on a plane). These puddings will never last long anyway…
Ingredients
But first, let me take a look at the ingredients:
Alright, here is what I like:
- Dark chocolate which is healthier than other types of chocolate (e.g. more antioxidants) with more cocoa mass than sugar
- Free range eggs (a great standard at M&S)
- Almonds instead of other nuts
- the option to bake which I heavily prefer to microwave (the smaller middle melting chocolate puddings usually get better results in microwaves however, the fudge is better from the oven and so much healthier)
- it’s gluten free!
What I dislike though:
- Whipping cream and sweetened condensed skimmed milk
- Invert sugar syrup (the Brits love their Golden Syrup but it doesn’t look healthy to me at all)
- Citric acid (bad for your teeth and many other negative side effects)
- Salt (is that necessary?)
The nutrition information also points out that a quarter of the pudding already provides you with a third of you daily sugar recommendation and almost half of your daily fat allowance! Well, I did tell you right from the start that this pudding was heaven and hell, didn’t I?
Pleasure
Let’s go with heaven from now on:
So if you use the oven, make sure set an alarm -you don’t want your pudding to over-bake as this would harden the core. However, you don’t want to take it out too early, as the top should be slightly crispy.
Once baked, get your plates and the ice-cream out. You can have the Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding on its own but to me it is never complete without vanilla ice-cream.
Personally, I like a flavourful vanilla ice-cream best with the Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding. However, the other day in London I couldn’t find a proper vanilla ice-cream but a box of Viennetta ice-cream. It was a good substitute but lacking the typical vanilla flavour.
Whipped cream might also be nice.
Last Chocolate melting…
To be honest, this isn’t the healthiest product ever (you might have guessed). Some of the ingredients could/should be replaced. However, looking at similar products, the M&S Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding is doing quite well. 5 of 5 forks might look a bit overrated to some of you but for me it is also about the whole liquid core concept that was brought to me by M&S. Actually, Food Technologist Elaine Kessler developed the first middle melting chocolate puddings for M&S.
After all, it might be healthier (if a dessert like this can be labeled as „healthy“ at all) to bake these chocolate fondants ourselves. However, the M&S Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding is prepared in no time and without sticky chocolate fingers -simply convenient.
I’m melting away.
Disclaimer
This post reflects a personal opinion and is not scientifically proven at all. My experience is a snapshot with the product. You may well experience the product in an entirely different way. I take no responsibilities whatsoever in regards to food allergies and medical conditions.