Sticky Toffee Pudding (Date Sponge in Toffee Sauce)
An English pudding: chopped dates soaked in boiling water with bicarbonate of soda are beaten into a sponge batter and baked, and a sauce of butter, dark sugar and cream is poured over while it is hot. Served warm with vanilla ice cream or custard.
Ingredients
- Sponge (20cm square tin)
- dates · stoned and finely chopped200 g
- boiling water250 ml
- bicarbonate of soda1 tsp
- butter · soft, plus a little for the tin75 g
- dark brown sugar · dark muscovado is best150 g
- eggs2
- plain flour175 g
- baking powder1 tsp
- salt1 pinch
- Toffee sauce
- butter100 g
- dark brown sugar150 g
- double cream250 ml
- salt1 pinch
- To serve
- vanilla ice cream or custard
Steps
- ⏲ 15 min
Put the dates in a bowl, pour on the boiling water and stir in the bicarbonate of soda. It fizzes a little and darkens. Leave 15 minutes.
- ⏲ 5 min
Heat the oven to 180°C and butter the tin. Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs one at a time.
- ⏲ 2 min
Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt, then the dates with their water. The batter is meant to be loose.
- ⏲ 28 min
Pour into the tin and bake at 180°C for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer in the middle comes out clean.
- ⏲ 4 min
Meanwhile bring the sauce ingredients to the boil, stirring, then simmer 3-4 minutes until glossy and brown.
- ⏲ 10 min
Prick the hot sponge all over with a skewer, pour on a third of the sauce and leave 10 minutes for it to soak in.
Cut into squares and serve warm with the rest of the sauce and ice cream or custard.
Variations
- A day ahead. Left overnight with the sauce on, it gets moister. Warm it in the oven before serving.
- Individual puddings. In a muffin tin they take 15-18 minutes.
- Spiced. A little clove or cinnamon in the batter.
- Nuts. Chopped walnuts or pecans in the batter, or scattered over the sauce.
Tips
- Add the dates with their soaking water. The sweetness and colour have gone into it.
- The batter should be loose. That is what keeps the sponge moist.
- Do not boil the sauce too long. It thickens as it cools.
- Prick and pour while the sponge is hot. It soaks in far less once cooled.
More detail and the reasons why (1)
- One spoon of soda does two jobs. First, in the boiling water, it softens the dates. That is what it does to the peas in mushy peas, dissolving the pectin that glues the cells together so they give way from the inside, and it is why the date pieces melt into the batter instead of staying chewy. Then the alkali that goes into the batter with the water darkens the crumb in the oven, the way alkali turns a pretzel deep brown (browning). That is why the sponge comes out darker than brown sugar alone would make it. Some of it also meets the acid in the brown sugar and helps the rise.
The basics behind this dish
- Eggs: Coagulation Temperatures and What They DecideWhite sets at 62°C, yolk at 68°C. Those two numbers explain scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, steamed custard and crème anglaise all at once.
- Why Sauces Split: Emulsions and Pan SaucesA cream sauce breaking and a carbonara scrambling are the same failure. Temperature and emulsifiers — plus how to bring a split sauce back.
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
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