Sticky Toffee Pudding

Serves 8

As winter approaches, this steam pudding emerges as a guaranteed crowd-pleaser for friends and family to enjoy amidst the shifting seasons. Prepare this pudding a day or two in advance and store it in the fridge. When you're ready to serve, simply reheat it in the microwave. Before reheating, trim the top to ensure an even bottom to turn out.

Date purée

Ingredients

• 355 g dried dates
• 400 ml cold water

Method

Place both dates and water in a pot with a lid on, bring to a simmer and cook until soft. Take care not to burn the bottom of the pot.

When the dates are soft, blend with a stick blender and pass through a sieve, place to one side. You may find the dates absorb the water and you need to add a spoon or two of water when blending.

Toffee Bourbon Sea Salt Sauce

Ingredients

• 450g golden syrup_
• 300g brown sugar
• 20g butter - we use unsalted butter but either is fine
• 180ml cream
• Bourbon (to taste)
• Sea salt

Method

Gently heat golden syrup, add sugar and butter until dissolved, stir in cream and allow to boil for 3 minutes before taking off the heat and allowing to cool.

Stir occasionally whilst cooling and add a dash or two of bourbon to flavour (depending on how strong you like the flavour) and a small sprinkle of salt to taste.

Pudding mix

Ingredients

• 230g date purée (recipe above)
• 80g butter (soft), diced plus a little extra for greasing the moulds
• 90g dark brown sugar - we use muscovado sugar as it gives the pudding a richer note but you can use brown sugar if preferred.
• 2 eggs
• 172g self-raising flour
• 4g baking powder

Method

Preheat oven on fan bake to 140 °C.

Take the pudding moulds or ramekins or muffin tin and grease with butter. Place a large teaspoon of your cooled (but not fridge-cold) toffee sauce on the bottom of each mould and place in the fridge.  

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, scraping down the sides. Sift the flour and baking powder and add half to the date puree, mix and repeat until you have a smooth paste.

Pour 80-100gm into each mould or equal measures into each of the eight moulds.

Pour boiling water into an oven pan/roasting dish to create a "Bain Marie". Wrap individual moulds or entire mould tray in cling film and tin foil, and place in the water bath.

Cook in the oven at 140 °C  for 50 minutes, test with a cake spike to see if ready. If the cake spike is clean, remove from the oven, if not continue to cook until the cake spike is clean.

To serve, leave to stand for a couple of minutes and then turn out onto a plate or bowl, pour the toffee sauce over the pudding and serve with vanilla ice cream.

If desired you can make your own hokey pokey or honeycomb to break up and add to the dessert as shown in the picture.