Sticky Toffee Pudding

With the transition from the end of winter to spring I thought I would make a pudding that I think best combats the winter blues! I have kept the sponge in this recipe very light to remind us that it’s not early January and that….. Summer is coming.

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  What you need for 6 portions:

  
  

  For the sponge:
  

  • 75 g of dark muscovado sugar
  • 75 g of light muscovado sugar
  • 175 g of plain flour
  • 2 eggs 
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract (NOT essence)
  • 50 g of butter 
  • 175 g of dates (you NEED the dates - without them it’s not sticky toffee pudding!)
  • 1 tsp of baking powder
  • AND 1 tsp of baking SODA 

  
  

  For the sticky sauce:
  

  • 250 ml of double cream
  • 75 g of dark brown sugar
  • 75 g of light muscovado sugar
  • 80 g of butter

  For serving sticky sauce:
  

  • 300 ml of double cream
  • 50 g light muscovado sugar
  • 50 g dark muscovado sugar
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract 
  • 50 g of butter

  How to make it:

  
  

  1. This recipe is so easy and very quick to prepare, so here we go. For the sponge start by de-stoning the dates (if necessary) and finely chop the dates up. Put the dates in a bowl and cover with 275 ml of just off the boil water, and let them cool to room temperature.
  2. To make the sponge batter put your dates and water, butter, sugars and eggs into a blender (or you could do it with a hand blender) and blend until smooth. Then transfer to a big bowl and whisk in your flour and vanilla. –I didn’t put the flour in the blender with the wet ingredients because I didn’t want to “work the gluten”. By this I mean I don’t want the baked sponge texture to be in anyway like bread i.e. chewy. To stop a chewy cake / sponge from forming don’t over mix your flour with your wet ingredients. Right at the end whisk in your leavening agents, (the stuff that is going to make your sponge rise) like baking powder and baking soda.  You must add both, because they are slightly different and the combination yields a greater rise than just one of them.
  3. Quickly pour your batter into a buttered brownie tin or any other cake tin and place in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes at 180 ^oC.
  4. Each sauce follows the same preparation technique:
  5. Add the cream, butter and sugar into a sauce pan and melt everything together, then bring the liquid to just boiling then take off the heat.
  6. Repeat method for the serving sauce, not forgetting the vanilla.
  7. Once the sponge is cooked –springy to the touch and when stabbed with a skewer there is no raw batter on the skewer- pierce your sponge all over with a skewer and then pour over your first sticky sauce. Put the sponge under a hot grill until the top starts to bubble and then serve with the extra hot sticky sauce poured on. 

  -If you want to really indulge yourself you could pour on to extra cold double cream or really say goodbye to winter and make yourself some homemade custard!-