Chocolate pudding recipe is 'decadent' and perfect for using up overripe bananas

Chocolate pudding recipe is 'decadent' and perfect for using overripe bananas (Image: Getty)

There’s no need to throw overripe fruit in the bin when it can be repurposed into something delicious.

Award-winning chocolatier and cookbook author Paul A Young shared a recipe with BBC Good Food and revealed how to use leftover bananas effectively.

Straying from classic banana bread to incorporate his chocolate expertise, Paul’s creation is a “decadent pudding” that combines a few major flavours.

A rich chocolate and banana sponge is topped with a creamy rum and raisin sauce for a boozy twist.

You only need three fresh ingredients: butter, cream, and eggs. The remaining ingredients are likely already in your kitchen cupboards.

Use bananas when they're overripe in the mixture for extra moisture and flavour (Image: Getty)

Ingredients

• 100g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
• 250g caster sugar
• 75g golden syrup, honey or maple syrup
• 275g dark chocolate
• Four eggs
• Two or three very ripe bananas, mashed

For the sauce

• 100g raisins or sultanas
• 50ml rum, brandy or whisky
• 100g salted butter
• 100g muscovado sugar
• half tsp sea salt
• 100g double cream

This delectable pudding is rich and chocolatey (Image: Getty)

The sauce makes this pudding moist and delectable, and it has a boozy kick for extra warmth.

It’s best to make the sauce before the cake, so start by soaking the raisins in the rum in a small bowl for two to three hours.

Now, start on the pudding. Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan) and prepare a 15x10cm baking dish or four individual pudding basins.

Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan until bubbling but not burning, then remove from the heat.

Add the chopped chocolate and mix well until everything is melted. Follow with the eggs and beat well until smooth before adding the mashed bananas. Stir in the flour to finish the mixture.

Transfer the pudding batter to the prepared baking dish and bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven.

When it comes out of the oven, the pudding should still have a little wobble, so try not to overcook it.

To finish the sauce, bring the butter, sugar, and salt to a simmer in a small saucepan and cook for two minutes. Remove from the heat before adding the cream, then mix it together.

Finally, stir in the rum and raisins. Pour the warm sauce over the finished pudding and leave to stand for 10 minutes before serving in slices.