To Die for Sticky Toffee Pudding

A community recipe by SamIAm

Not tested or verified by Nigella.com

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Introduction

This is based on a Marco Pierre White recipe from his Mirabelle restaurant book. This is decadent in its simplicity and will reduce grown men to tears! The recipe is originally written in a minimal fashion forcing me to identify the ingredients that work best with it as well as the cooking method and proportions. One more thing, this recipe yields a most delicious Toffee Sauce.

Ingredients

Serves: This recipe is for 6 individua

Metric Cups

For the Sticky Toffee Pudding

150 grams dates (pitted)
150 millilitres water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
60 grams unsalted butter (softened)
150 grams dark brown muscovado sugar
2 eggs
180 grams flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the Sauce

200 grams caster sugar
200 grams unsalted butter
½ lemon (juice of)
200 millilitres cream

For the Sticky Toffee Pudding

5⅓ ounces dates (pitted)
5 fluid ounces water
1 teaspoon baking soda
2⅛ ounces unsalted butter (softened)
5⅓ ounces dark brown sugar
2 eggs
6⅓ ounces flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the Sauce

7 ounces superfine sugar
7 ounces unsalted butter
½ lemon (juice of)
7 fluid ounces cream

Method

To Die for Sticky Toffee Pudding is a community recipe submitted by SamIAm and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

Pit and chop the dates. Put them in a bowl, cover them with the water and sprinkle over them the teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda. Let the mixture soak and soften for at least 1/2 hour.
Put the date and water mixture in a pan on the stove and heat till boiling point. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let the mixture cool then puree it.
Preheat the oven at 160 degrees.
In another bowl mix and cream together the butter and dark muscavado sugar. Add the eggs and date puree and mix. Sieve the flour and baking powder into to the wet mixture.
If using individual molds, butter and flour 6 of them and fill them 3/4 up with batter. If using a square tin, butter it and using a long piece of wax paper the width of the tin, make it stick on one side of the tin, the bottom of it and the other side in a U shape, then fill it with the batter and smooth the top.
Place either the separate molds or the square tin in the oven and bake for around 10 to 12 minutes.

For the sauce

In a pan on the stove put the butter and caster sugar, let it melt. Bring to boiling point whisking continuously, the mixture will start to caramelize. Do not stop whisking, the mixture will go from a white gold color to a nutty brown one.
Take it off the heat and pour in the lemon juice. Do be careful as the whole thing will swish up and splatter. Calm it down by pouring the cream over it, whisking all along.
Sieve the sauce to remove any possible sugar chucks from it. How to serve: If using the square tin, turn the cake out on a plate that is at least 3 cm deep.
Prick the top of the cake with a fork and pour the hot sauce all over it, saturating it. If using the individual molds, turn them on individual plates, and spoon over them a generous amount of toffee sauce.
This pudding can be served with cream, but works best with a good quality vanilla ice cream as it is the mixture of hot and cold that one is after.

Pit and chop the dates. Put them in a bowl, cover them with the water and sprinkle over them the teaspoon of baking soda. Let the mixture soak and soften for at least 1/2 hour.
Put the date and water mixture in a pan on the stove and heat till boiling point. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let the mixture cool then puree it.
Preheat the oven at 160 degrees.
In another bowl mix and cream together the butter and dark muscavado sugar. Add the eggs and date puree and mix. Sieve the flour and baking powder into to the wet mixture.
If using individual molds, butter and flour 6 of them and fill them 3/4 up with batter. If using a square tin, butter it and using a long piece of wax paper the width of the tin, make it stick on one side of the tin, the bottom of it and the other side in a U shape, then fill it with the batter and smooth the top.
Place either the separate molds or the square tin in the oven and bake for around 10 to 12 minutes.

For the sauce

In a pan on the stove put the butter and superfine sugar, let it melt. Bring to boiling point whisking continuously, the mixture will start to caramelize. Do not stop whisking, the mixture will go from a white gold color to a nutty brown one.
Take it off the heat and pour in the lemon juice. Do be careful as the whole thing will swish up and splatter. Calm it down by pouring the cream over it, whisking all along.
Sieve the sauce to remove any possible sugar chucks from it. How to serve: If using the square tin, turn the cake out on a plate that is at least 3 cm deep.
Prick the top of the cake with a fork and pour the hot sauce all over it, saturating it. If using the individual molds, turn them on individual plates, and spoon over them a generous amount of toffee sauce.
This pudding can be served with cream, but works best with a good quality vanilla ice cream as it is the mixture of hot and cold that one is after.

Additional Information

If you want to make the Sticky Toffee Pudding in the square tin and want to prepare it before hand, just stop after baking it and removing the tin from the oven. Then while waiting on it to cool in its tin, make the Toffee Sauce. Once the cake has cooled, keep it in its tin and cover it in cling film, leaving it out of the fridge, at room temperature. Once ready to serve, reheat the Toffee Sauce over the stove and proceed as described above. This recipe is for an 8"/20cm square tin. I personally use a 9"/23 cm square brownie tin (as shown in the photo) and I have found that by upting all the cake ingredients by the requisite 15% I get an excellent result. The 15% would lead to: 173 g of dates; 173 ml of water; 69g of butter; 173 g of dark murscavado sugar; 2-1/2 eggs; 207g of flour; 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder. I would bake it around 13 minutes.

Tell us what you think

What 3 Others have said

To fill a 9 inch tin to the same depth as an 8 requires a 26% increase in ingredients - it is 64 to 81 not 8 to 9.

Posted by Dave58 on 22nd September 2016
The butter is fine and the mixture eventually looks the right colour - you just have to keep at it. The only problem I had was when I stopped stirring the sugar and butter, and I ended up with a a mixture which looked like scrambled eggs and then later a big clump on my whisk. A quick 'Google' of how to rescue the sauce meant that by adding a tablespoon of very hot / boiling water and stirring (keep adding water until the consistency looks right again, then add the cream) my sauce was saved and the cake was amazing.

Posted by Sugaree on 1st January 2014
do we really use butter with the sauce? not sure if i'm doing something wrong but not sure how butter brings a white colour. when i try to cook it the consistency gets all gloopy and runny. help.

Posted by tempestmorn on 20th November 2012