Cake #28 - Sticky Toffee Pudding

We had friends visit recently and out at dinner we ordered Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert.  I thought this was a bold move, given that one of our guests is from England.  It seemed unlikely that a Phoenix restaurant - even a good one - would make sufficiently authentic sticky toffee pudding.  To tell the truth, I'm not sure I've ever had it before, but it was pretty yummy, and our British friend approved.  Her husband has made sticky toffee pudding before - from a New York Times recipe - and was successful, so I was inspired.

None of my cookbooks had a sticky toffee pudding recipe, so I took to the Internet and was intrigued by a Nigella Lawson recipe for Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding.  It uses melted butter, and is basically just combining the dry ingredients, combining the wet ingredients, mixing together with a wooden spoon, folding in the dates, and then - hang on, 'cause this is where it gets wild - you dot the batter in the pan with butter, cover with a cup of brown sugar, and the pour 2 cups of boiling water over the top before putting it all it the oven.  Forty-five minutes later you have cake with sticky toffee sauce bubbling around the edges.

I served it with whipped cream, but I think vanilla ice cream would be better - the temperature contrast would be nice.  The dates give the cake an earthy, hearty flavor - but you don't really notice them as chunks the way you might with raisins.

I can imagine that for someone who loves the toffee sauce part of the dish, this may not have quite enough toffee sauce.  But not only is this recipe easy (as promised) it's quick and basically one step.  I assembled it while I was making dinner and we had it ready for dessert.  There's not that much butter in it - so it's not crazy indulgent in terms of fat.  There's lots of sugar, however, so it's not exactly health food.

Nigella Lawson's recipe calls for self-rising flour - I didn't have any on hand, so I substituted regular all-purpose flour plus baking powder and salt, which is what's listed below.

I'm eager to make this again for my friends next time they're in town!

Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding

for the cake

½ cup dark brown sugar

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup whole milk

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted)

1½ cups chopped dates

for the sauce

1 cup dark brown sugar

approx. 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (in little blobs)

2 cups boiling water

1.       Preheat the oven to 375ºF and butter a 6-cup baking dish.

2.       Combine the ½ cup of dark brown sugar with the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, egg, vanilla and melted butter.  Then pour this mixture over the dry ingredients, stirring - just with a wooden spoon - to combine. Fold in the dates then scrape into the prepared baking dish. Don't worry if it doesn't look very full: it will by the time it cooks.

3.       Sprinkle the 1 cup of dark brown sugar over the batter in the baking dish and dot with the butter. Pour the boiling water over the ingredients in the baking dish (yes really!) and transfer to the oven. Set the timer for 45 minutes, though you might find the pudding needs 5 or 10 minutes more. The top of the pudding should be springy and spongy when it's cooked; underneath, the butter, brown sugar and boiling water will have turned into a rich, sticky sauce. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

From www.nigella.com