Chocolate Cobbler

When it's cold out (and it's been around -30° F for the last little bit) I just want to bake. Warm yummy comfort food just seems like a great idea on a cold cold night!  This recipe I stumbled over on Facebook. It reminds me a lot of my Hot Fudge Pudding Cake, except with a sponge cake instead of a fudgy brownie-type cake. The original is over at justapinch.com.

Chocolate Cobbler

1 cup (two sticks) butter

The batter and chocolate
layers, waiting for the butter.

Batter Layer
1 1/4 c sugar
1 1/2 all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c milk

Chocolate Layer
1 c sugar
6 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 c boiling water

Preheat oven to 350° F. In a 9x13 glass baking dish, melt the  butter in the oven.

Meanwhile, sift or whisk together the dry batter layer ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the milk and vanilla and mix well. The batter will be stiff.  Once the butter is melted spoon the batter over the butter, but do not stir.

In a separate bowl mix the cocoa and remaining sugar together and sprinkle on top of batter. Do not stir.

Pour the 2 cups of boiling water on top of that (don't stir) and bake for 30-45 minutes. I bake mine until I have a nice golden brown crust. In my oven this usually take about 35 minutes. Serve warm. Great with ice cream or whipped cream.

I didn't have the self-rising flour the original calls for, so I punted using a guide on about.com and it came out great. The original also says to pour the batter over the butter, but it was way too thick for that so I used a spoon to help the pour along and distributed it as evenly as possible.

Yummy stuff, and very easy!  I've decided (after we all had some and I slept on it) that the cake is very sweet, and that when I make it again I'm going to cut the sugar in the batter in half.  I don't think it will suffer for it.