Sticky Toffee Pudding

It's not everyday that a Queen celebrates her 60 years on the throne. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee  was a gargantuan effort to organize with every store, company and living soul in the UK including the 54 countries representing the Commonwealth participating. I thought it was apt to make the quintessential English dessert - the sticky toffee pudding. It's generally made with either prunes or dates, doused in toffee sauce and a scoop of ice-cream. It's decadent, rich and oh so scrumptious. Resist all temptation to count the calories. Just do an extra loop when you're out for a run.





I had my very first taste of sticky toffee pudding here and I was hooked. I would've gladly ordered another. It's definitely far cheaper to make your own. I strongly suggest you do so when you have guests over or else you may end up doing what I did. We ate the entire cake. The 3 of us.

I found a simple recipe from BBC Good Food which anyone can put together even if you're not the type to bake. Bon Apetit!


Serves 8

Ingredients

• 200g dried dates, stoned and chopped. Buy Medjool if you can
• 250ml black tea (not too strong)
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 85g unsalted butter , softened
• 175g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 175g golden caster sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten 

For the toffee sauce

• 100g light muscovado sugar
• 100g unsalted butter
• 142ml carton double cream 

1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Put the dates and tea in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Cook for 3-4 minutes to soften the dates. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda.  
2. Beat the butter and caster sugar together with electric beaters until pale and creamy, then beat in the egg, flour and mixed spice. Fold in the date mixture and pour into a buttered ovenproof dish or brownie tin. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is just firm to touch.
3. Meanwhile, make the sauce by putting the sugar, butter and cream in a pan over a low heat and simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Cook until the sauce is a lovely toffee colour. Cut the pudding into squares and serve with the warm sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.