Sticky Toffee Pudding

I crave things often and suddenly, but normally they go away fairly quickly to be replaced by another craving. Sometimes I crave something for days and this is when I have to make it at all costs.

This time it was sticky toffee pudding. I've never made it myself before but it was only going to be a matter of time. I searched around and found this recipe by David Lebowitz and also this version of his recipe on Ginger Tablet which was happily in grams rather than cups too.



This is just the kind of food you need when the roads are covered in ice and the house just won't heat up, it really does feel like it sticks to your ribs (and your arteries).

Sticky Toffee Pudding - adapted from David Lebowitz & Ginger Tablet
I roughly halved the Ginger Tablet recipe, made a couple of variations and we got four very generous helpings.

for the cake:

250g dried dates, chopped

100g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 egg
vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp

50g butter, softened

80g granulated sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

50ml milk

for the toffee sauce:

100g muscovado sugar

25g butter, diced

100ml double, heavy cream

1tbsp golden syrup

Put your chopped dates in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for about 10-15 minutes whilst you make the cake mixture and sauce.

For toffee sauce add all the ingredients to a non stick saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring all the time so it doesn't boil away. After about 5 minutes take off the heat. I added a bit of cream towards the end as the recipe said this would help the sauce to remain thin, it still thickened anyway! Reheating it will bring it back to sauce stage later on.

Line a loaf tin with well buttered greaseproof paper (both sides) - add half of the toffee sauce to the bottom of the loaf in.

Cream butter and sugar in a bowl.Add egg, then vanilla then your syrup. Sift in flour & baking soda slowly and mix in carefully. Add in milk and mix. Then drain your dates and add to the cake mixture, mixing carefully, take care not to overmix.
Then add your cake mixture to the loaf tin, on top of the toffee sauce.
The layer of toffee sauce really makes this pud stand out!

Bake for 20 -25 minutes at Gas mark 4 (I think 180c?). My oven is old and decripid and so took a lot longer but anyone with a normal oven should have this ready in less time.

Reheat the rest of the sauce on the hob when the cake is done, slice cake, pour on sauce, add ice cream/cream/custard, die of pleasure.

Any remaining sauce will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, but if you use it all up the first sitting (don't blame you!) its fairly easy to make a small batch with the same recipe above.

:)