Malteser Cups.

This recipe was meant to save me from sinking under a sea of hanger-on-er Christmas treats. I mean I LOVE being surrounded by abundent, indulgent foodstuffs as much as the next kitchen based obsessive, but it seems kind of improper for half of my kitchen surfaces to be unusable as a result of an extensive panettone and gold coin collection past the first week on January.

Wheeeen will I have a kitchen big enough to pile food highhighigh...yet still have enough space to cook?

It turns out I have quiiiite a lot more than 60g of chocolate left, and that a sprinkling of Maltesers does not an empty box make. I know I know...life is hard.

I guess I'll just have to keep ploughing through it, mouthful after glorious mouthful. The only tricky bit is that I'm a teensy bit injured...which means running is a no, so I maaaaay just about turn into a gold coin, all shiny and round. Ah well, soomeone's got to do it. With Love and Cake.

Malteser Cups.

A product of inspiration from Nigella and Bourbonnatrix Bakes

A few notes:

• While I've said these serve 4, if you're one of the (crazy) people that says things like 'mm it's delicious but very rich', then I'd suggest using espresso cups or littler ramekins and splitting the mixture between 6 or 8.
• If you don't fancy the malty element here, just replace the 15g Ovaltine with the same amount of cocoa and use dark chocolate.

Serves 4

You will need

4 x cups or ramekins, each about 150ml in capacity 

250ml milk

125ml double cream

30g caster sugar

1tbsp cornflour

20g cocoa

15g Original Ovaltine

2 tbsp boiling water

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

60g milk chocolate, finely chopped

• Pop the kettle on and pour the milk and cream into a small saucepan.
• Heat the milk and cream gently while you get on with the other steps.
• Pop the sugar and cornflour in another saucepan, and sieve in the cocoa and Ovaltine.
• Add the 2 tbsp of boiling water and whisk to a paste.
• Whisk in the egg yolks one at a time, followed by the milk mixture, which should be just about to boil, and the vanilla.
• Heat the chocolatey mixture gently, whisking constantly for 4-ish minutes, until it thickens to the consistency of mayonnaise.
• Remove from the heat and whisk in the chopped chocolate until smooooooth and shiny.
• Divide the mixture between your cups and cover with clingfilm, so that it actually sits on the surface of the pudding, to stop a skin forming.
• Leave to cool and then chill in the fridge.
• Serve as they are or top with whipped cream (you'll need about 200ml, pre-whipping) and maltesers...