Eat: Sticky Toffee Pudding

This Thanksgiving featured a unique dessert for my family – sticky toffee pudding. It’s probably not the most appropriate choice for Thanksgiving since it’s not even American, but it’s delicious and I figured that was all that counted. Sticky toffee pudding is a traditional English dessert, although you have to understand that “pudding” is actually a lot more like cake in Great Britain. (Have you heard of Yorkshire pudding? I think I read about characters in a book eating that, but when I went to Ireland and actually had some, I was quite surprised. Not pudding at all!))

Maybe you’d like to mix things up at Christmas this year, or perhaps you’ll “pin it” to try later. If you happen to travel to Great Britain you will want to make sure you order this at a restaurant, but if a plane ticket is not in your current budget, you can always make it at home!

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Pudding (cake):
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup pitted dates
1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 lightly beaten large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Toffee sauce:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup packed light brown sugar

I cup whipped heavy cream.

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10 inch round or 9 inch square baking dish.
– Sift together flour and baking POWDER (or don’t sift, if you are like me)
– Chop dates fine. Put them in a bowl and add boiling water and baking SODA. Set aside.

– Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until blended.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.
-Fold in date mixture with rubber spatula until blended (it will be soupy).

-Pour into dish. Try not to freak out that it is a soupy mess. Bake until top is firm (It will happen, I assure you!), approximately 35 minutes.

To make toffee sauce combine butter, heavy cream, and brown sugar in sauce pan.  Heat to boiling. Gently boil mixture until thickened, approximately 8 minutes. (Note: if you do not follow the directions and GENTLY boil it it will get very thick and turn into hard candy when it cools. Ahem – not that I would know that from experience…)

Remove cake from oven. Pour 1/3 of toffee sauce onto cake and place under broiler until top is bubbling.

Serve with extra sauce and whipped cream. In England I think they serve it with just cream as opposed to whipped cream. What can I say? I’m an American.

Serves 6

Hope you enjoy this delicious English dessert!