Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce

This has to be my most favorite English puddings. I eat it at every restaurant or pub that we dine at and had to make one myself. I don't have a "proper" pudding basin yet so I bake them in bread pans and it worked out well and tasted absolutely amazing. I got the recipe from James Martin's The Collection recipe book.

Ingredients:

85 g (3 oz) butter, softened

25 g (1 oz) plain flour

175 g (1 cup) dark brown demerara sugar (course grained brown sugar)

200 g (7 oz) pitted dried dates

300 ml (10 fl oz) water

1 Tbsp golden syrup

2 Tbsp black treacle

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

200g (7oz) self-raising flour

1 Tbsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 C/400 F. Take 25 g (1 oz) of the soft butter and butter the mould(s) (I used bread pans). Scatter the plain flour over the buttered inside to coat it thoroughly. Discard any excess flour.

Using a food mixer with a bowl and a whisk attachment, blend the remaining butter and demerara sugar. While mixing, bring the dates and water to a boil in a small pan. Add the golden syrup, treacle, eggs and vanilla essence to the butter mixture and carry on mixing. Then slowly add the self-raising flour on a slow setting. Once mixed together stop mixing.

Puree the water and date mixture in a blender, add the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), and quickly stir this.

While hot, into the egg and butter mixture. Once combined, pour into mould(s) and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the top of the pudding is just firm to the touch.

Remove the pudding(s) from the mould(s) and place on a plate with lots of toffee sauce on top. Serve with warmed custard or cold vanilla ice cream.

Toffee Sauce

Ingredients:

40 g butter (1.4 oz)

300ml (1/2 pint) double cream (or heavy whipping cream)

40 g (1.4 oz) dark brown sugar

2 Tbsp golden syrup

2 Tbsp black treacle

Method:

Put all ingredients into a pan and bring to a boil. Keep warm and serve poured over sticky toffee pudding.

***Note: This recipe calls for you to use one 13 cm (5 in) pudding basin or 2-3 small 7.5 cm (3in) metal pudding basins. If you don't have pudding basins, you could use bread pans or round oven proof bowls. The final pudding will raise to about double the amount of dough mixture you put in the moulds, so pour enough dough into each mould accordingly.