Following Advice - Nigella's Stickly Chocolate Pudding

This is a revelation!

First things first - I made this twice - it was cheap (relatively, since it used cocoa instead of chocolate). Or at least I attempted to. You see, I didn't read Nigella's notes before the recipe the second time I made it. I stupidly tried to halve the recipe - except the one egg stipulated. Everything in half the quantity except the egg. I'd just have a slighly cakier pudding, right? Well, it did exactly that - became all cake and no pudding, and no fun at all.

So, as usual, put yourself in Nigella's messy (and rather clumsy) but wise and sensuous hands, and you'll do just fine.

FYI, the photos you see are from my first attempt, where I did follow the quantities listed. As you can see, the results are an absolute joy - a river of molten chocolate sauce to be scooped up and slobbered over with the crumbly topping.

"...child's play to make. Choose good cocoa and good dark chocolate and stick carefully to the exact measurements." And when Nigella says stick, you'd better stick (so I admonished myself after failed attempt number two).

Ready a 20-cm souffle dish (as Nigella does) - I used my shallow oval fish pie-looking dish from Ikea with no idea whether it can hold the mixture or not - thankfully it did.

The Pudding:
75 g best dark chocolate or chocolate buttons
150g self-raising flour
25g good cocoa
50 g ground hazelnuts (or just replace with flour)
200g caster sugar
40g unsalted butter, melted
1 egg
180 ml full-fat milk
1 tsp real vanilla extract (or any liquor - I used Tia Maria)

The Sauce:
180g soft brown sugar
120 g cocoa, sifted

Preheat the oven to 180 degC.

If you're not using the chocolate buttons, chop the chocolate roughly. Don't use the food processor since the pieces of chocolate will provide the chewy, melting lumps in the pudding; they need to be chunks and the machine will whizz them to dust.

Sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl, stir in the ground hazelnuts and the sugar, then add the chocolate. Whisk together the melted butter, egg, milk and vanilla and pour into the dry ingredients. Stir well, so it's all thoroughly mixed, then spoon into the buttered dish.

Now for the sauce, not that you make it yourself (the cooking does that for you) but you have to get the ingredients together. Put the kettle on. Mix the cocoa and brown sugar and sprinkle over the top of the pudding mixture in the dish. Pour the water to the 500 ml mark of the measuring jug, then pour over the pudding. Put the water-soused pudding into the oven and leave there for 50 minutes. I'd recommend placing a larger tray at the bottom, to catch any spillovers. Don't open the door till a good 45 minutes have passed, and then press; of it feels fairly firm and springy to the touch, it's ready. If you're using a shallow dish, it'll be ready in 35-40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately, spooning from the dish and making sure everyone gets both sauce and sponge.