Pretty pink stems of rhubarb inspiration whacked me aside the head the other day at the growers market. (Not figuratively, that would have hurt.) This purchase, coupled with a recent winning deconstructed rhubarb and chocolate tart on MKR (My Kitchen Rules, an Aussie TV cooking competition), had the old brain cogs a whirring. The thinking was…how can I enjoy these flavours without going to a whole lot of bother/trouble/effort and time?

Pudding was the natural answer. (It often is.) A popular dessert in this here household is a rhubarb and gingerbread pudding, so why not look for a similar recipe using chocolate? Naturally, it had to be gluten free.

This cooky person did hold a little bit of hesitancy regarding the marriage of chocolate and rhubarb, but the way the judges on MKR oohed and threw compliments around the room like small boys with a new handball, meant it had to be tried.

My gluten free adaptation has a lot less sugar than the original recipe, the sourness of rhubarb is a fave in our family and we don’t like it too sweet, man. (The butter has been knocked back a bit too.) It does use a food processor so it is super easy and quick.

To really ensure it’s validity, a poll was taken from those who shovelled this pud into their fizzogs for dessert.

The Verdict

Kid 1: ‘It’s nice but not a winning combination, I much prefer rhubarb bumble (crumble.)’
Mr Bagpipes visiting from Big Sky Land: ‘Mmmmm, we can have more of that lass, somewhat down the track.’
The Yak: ‘Yummy, I love it.’
Cheergerm: I like the cray cray (what all the hip young thangs say for ‘crazy’) combo of bitter dark chocolate and slightly sour rhubarb. It’s nuts but it works.

What do 10 years old know anyway?

GLUTEN FREE RHUBARB AND CHOCOLATE PUDDING

WHAT YOU NEED

Fruit

700 g trimmed weight rhubarb (recipe said 600 but I had a big bunch)
Cut into 2cm sizes
50 g coconut sugar (or raw, brown, rapadura)

Sponge

150 g self raising gluten free flour
50 g sorghum flour (or buckwheat or teff flour)
25 g cocoa powder
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
150g butter, room temperature and diced
150 g coconut sugar (raw caster sugar, rapadura)
4 eggs, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
50g dark chocolate chips (I used the good stuff baby…Callebaut callet, oh, fancy Belgian chocolate)

WHAT YOU DO

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas mark 6.
Cut the rhubarb into 2 – 3 cm lengths and toss with the sugar in a bowl.
Spread evenly over the base of a buttered 30cm/2 litre capacity ovenproof dish (or equivalent size.)
Sift the flours, cocoa powder and baking powder in a separate bowl.
Reserving 2 tablespoons of the sugar, place the butter, eggs, vanilla and sifted mixture into a food processor and cream together. (No food processor? Try beating butter, vanilla and sugar, add eggs gradually then the sifted ingredients.)
Stir in the chocolate chips with a spoon.
Spread the mixture over the rhubarb and sprinkle on the reserved sugar.
Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. (Remember if you hit a choc chip it will come out looking like it isn’t cooked but it probably is).
This is great hot out of the oven, or warm.
We snarfled it with ice cream but it would be delicious with yoghurt, custard or cream.

A cheergerm adaptation from the daily mail uk website

Pop here for my gluten free rhubarb crumble recipe:

https://cheergerm.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/gluten-free-rhubarb-and-berry-bumble/

Go here for the original non-gluten free rhubarb and chocolate pudding recipe. You could still knock back the sugar and butter quantities as per this recipe and keep the rest the same.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1272877/Recipe-Chocolate-rhubarb-sponge-pudding.html

Other websites that you may be interested in:

http://www.callebaut.com

https://au.tv.yahoo.com/my-kitchen-rules/recipe/23057262/deconstructed-chocolate