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Donal Skehan
Chocolate Mud Pie | DonalSkehan.com
  • desserts-baking

Chocolate Mud Pie

October 24

A rich chocolate dessert made all the more luxurious with ground almonds, rum and espresso powder. I once saw Ina Garten mention in one of her oh-so-fabulous Hamptons TV series that espresso powder will amplify the flavour of even the most mediocre chocolate and it certainly does the job in this pie. The eggs are separated and the whites whisked until light and fluffy, providing an almost souffle-like finish to the batter. 

  • serves Serves 10
  • time 90mins

Method

  1. 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line a 20cm diameter spring-form tin with baking parchment.
  2. 2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl sitting over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove the bowl from the heat and mix in the sugar, vanilla extract, espresso powder, rum and ground almonds. Stir through the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing after each addition, until you have a thick batter.
  3. 3. Put the egg whites in a standing food mixer (or use an electric hand-held mixer in a bowl) and whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
  4. 4. Loosen the chocolate mixture with a spoonful of the whites then gently fold through the rest of the egg whites until just combined.
  5. 5. Pour two-thirds of the chocolate mixture into the prepared cake tin. Using a spoon, pour over the caramel sauce in an even layer, then cover with the remaining batter and place the tin in the oven to bake for about 35 minutes until it is firm but with a slight wobble.
  6. 6. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to sit on a wire rack to cool in its tin.
  7. 7. Carefully remove the mud pie from the tin and transfer it to a cake stand with a lip to catch the caramel as it oozes out while still a little warm.
  8. 8. Sprinkle the peanut brittle over the top and serve in generous slices.

Ingredients

8oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely chopped

1 1/4 stick butter, diced

6oz caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp espresso powder

3 tbsp dark rum

3.5oz ground almonds

6 large free range eggs, separated

Cheats Caramel Sauce

Peanut Brittle

225g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely chopped

125g butter, diced

175g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp espresso powder

3 tbsp dark rum

100g ground almonds

6 large free range eggs, separated

Cheats Caramel Sauce

Peanut Brittle

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