Sunday 24 February 2013

Tried and Tested: Sticky Toffee Pudding






A Sunday treat?
It was most confusing when we moved to the UK all those years ago and people were talking about 'what they were having for pudding'. Well, we quickly understood that they meant dessert. But to add to the confusion, pudding can also be a savoury dish like Yorkshire pudding, black pudding, or steak and kidney pudding, to mention a few. The word pudding is believed to come from the French boudin, originally from the Latin botellus, meaning "small sausage", referring to encased meats used in Medieval European puddings. As I said, all too confusing and I won't bore you with more historical pudding facts.
I am in this post referring to a dessert (and the pudding is in fact a cake!)
Illustration borrowed from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861

A friend of mine loves Sticky Toffee Pudding and will have it anytime he goes out for a meal. I happened to think of him yesterday and decided to see if I could find a good recipe to learn to make this traditional British dessert (I still prefer to call this part of the meal for dessert). It was incredibly yummy, moist, and more-ish. The recipe suggested it being served with warm sauce and a scoop of ice cream. I think there can be too much of a good thing and don't see why you need ice cream, but hey! whatever takes your fancy
I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website, and I made some minor amendments to it as I didn't have the exact ingredients to hand. The recipe calls for a bit unusual ingredient - tea!, but trust me - it was delicious!

200 gram dried dates (I used prunes and figs)
250 ml black (not too strong) tea (I used a tea bag of Lady Grey)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
85 gram butter
175 gram self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
175 golden caster sugar
2 eggs

For the toffee sauce:
100 gram light muscovado sugar
100 gram butter
142 ml double cream (I used whipping cream)

This is how you do it:
Chop the dates (prunes/figs) into small pieces and add to the tea and let it boil for a few minutes until soft. Add the bicarbonate of soda.

Beat the butter and caster sugar until creamy.
Add the eggs, flour and mixed spice.
Add the tea/date mixture and poor into a buttered ovenproof dish.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until top is firm to touch.

Make the sauce by simmering the sugar, butter and cream over low heat till the sugar has dissolved. Cook till the sauce is thick and has a toffee colour. 

Cut the cake into squares and pour some warm sauce (and a dollop of ice cream, if you want) over.

Mmmmm...
 

5 comments:

  1. Hei!! Det høres og leses godt ut!! Dog ikke smart i store mengder , ei heller særlig lurt hvis man slanker seg..... Særlig sausen høres veldig god ut!! Må nok prøves! Ha en fortsatt fin søndag!! Anne k:-)

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  2. That looks so yum! At some point we lived across the fence from an Australian house share, he used to make the most amazing sticky pudding with Bailey's sauce.. Unfortunately never got the recipe off him, but still remember that pudding!

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    1. Mmmm... That is a novel idea to me. Baileys... I can see that would work! :-)

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  3. Det er litt artig, i Sverige sier de at de skal "fika" og det betyr dessert! Jeg trodde det betydde lunsj jeg, helt til en svensk venn forklarte det for meg ;) Er liksom ikke så vant med desserter her i Østfold ;)

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