Puddings & Desserts · Cartmel, Cumbria

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Name: Sticky Toffee Pudding
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 200g stoned dates, chopped; 300ml boiling water; 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 85g soft butter; 175g soft dark sugar; 2 eggs; 175g self-raising flour; 1 tsp vanilla; Sauce: 175g soft dark sugar, 50g butter, 200ml double cream, pinch of salt; Custard, cream or vanilla ice cream, to serve

Britain’s most-ordered restaurant pudding: a dark, date-soft sponge flooded with hot toffee sauce. Invented in the Lake District, beloved everywhere custard is poured.

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 35 min
Total: 55 min
Yield: Serves 8
Difficulty: Easy
Era: 1970s (Lake District)

Ingredients

200g stoned dates, chopped; 300ml boiling water; 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
85g soft butter; 175g soft dark sugar; 2 eggs
175g self-raising flour; 1 tsp vanilla
Sauce: 175g soft dark sugar, 50g butter, 200ml double cream, pinch of salt
Custard, cream or vanilla ice cream, to serve

Method

Oven180°C350°FFan 160°CGas 4

Soak the dates in the boiling water with the bicarbonate for 15 minutes.
Cream the butter and sugar; beat in the eggs and vanilla; fold in the flour, then the dates and their liquid.
Bake in a lined 20cm square tin at 180°C / 350°F (fan 160°C, gas 4) for 30–35 minutes until springy.
Simmer the sauce ingredients together for 5 minutes until glossy.
Stab the pudding all over, pour over half the sauce, and serve in squares with the rest of the sauce and custard. No restraint is expected.

Oven temperatures are given in Celsius, Fahrenheit, fan and gas mark throughout. Quantities are metric, as cooked and written in the UK.