Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding Queries

Asked by Elemnat. Answered on 9th December 2014

Full question

Made the Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding, so fab and easy. Unfortunately I discovered my children HATE dates. They even found the tiniest pieces and pulled them out. I was gutted. Can this pudding be made by leaving out the dates?

I am thinking about cooking the Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding for Christmas lunch as an alternative for Christmas pudding. I'd like to make in advance and freeze, is this okay? At what point should it be frozen, before or after cooking? Any advice welcomed, thanks! Jane

Our answer

Nigella's Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding (from Nigella Bites) includes dates as a nod to the classic sticky toffee pudding recipes that include dates that are cooked until very soft. The difference is that Nigella's dates are just chopped and added into the batter just before baking, rather than being an integral part of the cake batter.

So we suspect that it would be fine to omit the chopped dates. If your children like nuts then you could add some chopped walnuts instead, or just bake the pudding without any add-ins in the sponge.

Unfortunately we don't recommend making the Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding in advance. As it is a "self saucing" type of pudding the sauce is best when the pudding is just cooked. The sauce thickens when the pudding cools and when you reheat the pudding some of the sauce tends to get absorbed into the sponge. However it is extremely quick to mix so we suggest that you have the ingredients weighed out about an hour in advance and mix the flour, sugar and dates in a bowl and melt the butter and set it aside. Then while the turkey is resting boil the kettle, mix up the cake batter, top with the sauce ingredients and put in the oven just as you sit down for your main course. The pudding takes 45 to 50 minutes to cook so should have time to cook while you enjoy your main course.