Sticky toffee pudding

Serves - 6 to 8

You’ll need

• 200g pitted dates, roughly chopped
• 250ml boiling water
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 75g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 150g light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 175g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of sea salt

For the toffee sauce
• 100g unsalted butter
• 150g light brown sugar
• 200ml double cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of sea salt

To serve, optional
• Vanilla ice cream
• Double cream
• Crème fraîche

Method

1. Soften the dates

Put the chopped dates into a bowl, pour over the boiling water and stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Leave them for 10–15 minutes until softened. It will not look especially glamorous at this stage, but it is doing important work.

2. Get the tin and oven ready

Heat the oven to 180°C fan. Butter a medium baking dish or pudding tin well. You want something around 20cm square, or thereabouts, that will let the sponge rise nicely without becoming too thin.

3. Make the sponge batter

In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and light brown sugar together until lighter and a bit fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and pinch of salt.

4. Bring it all together

Mash the soaked dates lightly with a fork, then stir them into the butter mixture along with any soaking liquid. Fold in the flour mixture until you have a smooth batter with the dates evenly distributed through it. Do not overwork it – this is pudding, not a stress test.

5. Bake

Spoon the batter into the prepared dish and level the top. Bake for 30–35 minutes, or until risen, springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. The top should look deeply golden and properly inviting.

6. Make the toffee sauce

While the pudding bakes, put the butter, light brown sugar, double cream, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt into a saucepan over a medium-low heat. Stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved, then let it bubble gently for 2–3 minutes until smooth and glossy. You want it thick enough to coat a spoon, but still pourable enough to be generous with.

7. Finish properly

Once the pudding is out of the oven, let it sit for 5 minutes. Spoon over a little of the warm toffee sauce so it starts soaking in, then serve the rest alongside or pour over with a reasonably free hand.

8. Serve

Serve warm with ice cream, cream or crème fraîche. This is not the moment to hold back. The contrast of warm sponge and cold creaminess is very much part of the point.

A couple of helpful notes

- The date mixture may look a little odd once the bicarbonate of soda goes in, but that is entirely normal.
- If you want to get ahead, make the pudding earlier in the day and warm it through before serving, with the sauce made fresh or gently reheated.
- A tiny pinch of flaky salt over the sauce just before serving works very nicely if you want to sharpen the sweetness a touch.