Sticky Toffee Pudding!
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Gorgeous, rich and delightful homemade sticky toffee pudding with homemade sticky toffee sauce and served with ice cream!
Sticky toffee pudding
I realise it’s now the end of October, but as the weather is cold and cosy I wanted to post a warming pudding that is going to satisfy my sweet cravings, and is utterly scrumptious and delicious. That basically only calls for one thing… sticky toffee pudding.
For this, think sweet, but not teeth achingly sweet. It’s warm, it’s cosy and it’s heaven in every singly morsel. One major thing I must say about this recipe though? You will want more than one bowlful. I will be honest and say that sticky toffee pudding is my favourite pudding in the world, so I am so excited to post this recipe.
Classic puddings
I feel like this is one of those puddings that is on nearly every single pub menu, and you can get pretty much all year, even when its the peak of summer, and I am not mad about it. It’s a classic, that you can’t beat. However, making it at home means it’s cheaper, and you get more for your money. You can add more sauce, or less sauce, or whatever you really fancy. It is EPIC.
I often find with desserts that I buy when I am out at a pub or a restaurant, that there is never enough sauce. I might actually just be that person who loves an obscene amount of sauce, but hey ho… I love it. I might be mad for that, but I know I am not alone. There is something wonderful about having the warm pudding, the warm sauce, and the ice cold ice cream. Or even just a drizzle of double cream, or anything!
The pudding
There are so many recipes for sticky toffee pudding out there that I kind of merged a few together and then also what I had in the fridge/cupboard and what I found worked best! However, dates MUST be used, in my opinion.
Obviously though, dates aren’t to everyones tastes so you can leave them out, up the milk to 250ml, and add in 25g more treacle, but it won’t be quite as good. My sticky toffee cake recipe is super popular, but that definitely requires the dates.
- Butter – the butter for the pudding can be a block butter, or baking spread
- Sugar – I prefer to use dark brown soft sugar for a proper sticky toffee flavour, but light brown sugar works well as well
- Flour – I use self raising flour when making this pudding
- Raising agents – A little bit of baking powder and bicarb
- Treacle – black treacle is important again for the proper sticky toffee flavour, but can be substituted for golden syrup
- Eggs – I use medium eggs in my baking, but two large would work well for this
- Milk – I always use full-fat whole milk in my bakes for best results
The sauce
The sauce is arguably one of the most important bits right as I said above?! I just can’t get enough of it, and I want it slathered all over the pudding as well as poured on after… it’s perfect.
- Butter – whilst you can use bakings spread for the sponge, I’d recommend actual butter for the sauce to prevent splitting
- Sugar – I’d use the same as you used for the sponge, I use dark brown soft sugar though
- Treacle – again, I prefer black treacle for a rich flavour, but golden syrup works well
- Cream – double/heavy cream is best, single cream or low fat won’t work in the same way
- Vanilla – I love to add a little sweetness, but this is optional
Best served with…
My favourite flavours of ice cream to go with a dessert like this are clotted cream ice cream, and toffee ice cream – but maybe that’s a little too much sticky toffee in one go? Or, if you have a giant glug of custard, I’m not going to be mad about it…
You can obviously use whatever ice cream you fancy, or its particularly fun when you make this for a dinner party and buy several different flavours of ice cream – the face of each guest when they cant decide which flavour to have. And of course, you can use shop bought custard, or make your own… whatever you prefer.
Tips & Tricks
- This is best served fresh, but will last 3+ days in the fridge
- The pudding can be made in advance and frozen
- The sauce can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for 3+ days
- You can reheat the pudding once if you have leftovers
- I use a 30x20cm size dish, but anything roughly similar works well
Sticky Toffee Pudding!
Ingredients
Sticky Toffee Pudding
- 175 g dates (stones removed)
- 175 ml boiling water
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 175 g light or dark brown soft sugar
- 250 g self raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 75 g black treacle (or golden syrup)
- 3 medium eggs
- 125 ml whole milk
Sticky Toffee Sauce
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 75 g light or dark brown soft sugar
- 2 tbsp black treacle (or golden syrup)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150 ml double cream
Instructions
For the Pudding
- Remove the stones from your dates, and chop as finely as possible.
- Pour over the boiling water and leave the mixture to sit for 20 minutes or so. If you prefer no lumps, blend the mixture until smooth.
- Preheat your oven to 180ºC/160ºC Fan, and get a baking dish ready - I use one that is about 1.5L in size (30x20cm ish)
- Add the unsalted butter, sugar, eggs, self raising flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and the black treacle into a bowl, and beat until combined - beat as little as possible so as not to over beat it.
- Add in the date & water mixture, and the milk a little at a time, and mix in until smooth. It'll be a thin mixture, but roll with it!
- Pour the mixture into the dish and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Whilst baking, make the sauce!
For the Sauce
- Add all your ingredients to a larger pan, and heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved and the butter has melted and incorporated.
- Bring the sauce to the boil and stir for 1-2 minutes so it thickens slightly.
- Pour half or most of the sauce over the baked pudding.
- Serve with a drizzle of cream, whipped cream, or ice cream like I did and any leftover sauce!
Notes
- Any dish that is about 1.5-2L in size will work - just keep an eye on the baking time.
- The dessert is best served fresh, but can be reheated once.
- The sauce will last for 3 days, in the fridge - will thicken a lot in the fridge.
- If you want to bake individual puddings, I recommend using these pudding moulds for the recipe! The recipe will make about 8-10 and take 20 minutes to bake!
- If you don't want to use the dates, remove the dates and water and use 250ml milk in total.
Enjoy!
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J x
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Thanks for sharing, this looks a perfect dessert for the coming months as it gets colder 🙂
I was wondering if you could cook it in the oven in those rectangular foil trays? Would I need to adjust the time? Thank you!!
It will adjust the timings if it’s a different size to the recommend tray – if it’s shallower, you need to make sure you don’t add too much otherwise it could over flow!
Just wanted to say that I made this recipe with gluten-free flour (with xanthan gum) and it turned out amazing. I also made them in mini bundt tins (always helps to bake gluten-free cakes individually to stop them from falling them apart). I did find I had to make another batch of sauce because by the time I spooned some over each pudding there wasn’t any left for serving with. Great recipe, thanks Jane. I will definitely be making this again.
Oops forgot to rate it! Would have given it more if I could!
Oh my goodness! This is amazing!! I used a rectangle Glass Pyrex Dish and made clotted cream ice cream from the Roddas website to serve with it, thanks Jane for another fabulous recipe 😊
Made this for Sunday roast dessert and went down a treat! Delicious!
How would you recommend to reheat? Oven or microwave?
I usually just use the microwave because it’s quick and easier to reheat one portion, but if you are reheating a larger amount the oven would be fine! x
Jane another beautiful dessert recipe.made it today absolutely delicious the sponge is soft and full of flavour and sticky toffee sauce is delightful.made the sticky toffee loaf aswell and was loved by everyone.x
If on a budget is it possible to substitute the dates for prunes?
I’m sure that would be fine – but read the notes on the post about not using them at all! x
Hi I am gluten intolerant. What ratio of gluten free flour would you use instead?
I would just do a straight switch – a couple of people mentioned on social media they did it that way and it worked well!
One of my favourite puds! Thanks for this recipe. Can I ask what difference golden syrup would make if substituting the treacle?
Its a lighter flavour so not quite as ‘sticky toffee’ if that makes sense!!
Can you use a loaf tray using these ingredients or will it need to be adjusted?
Can’t air to try this, but I’ve no cream just milk can I use this in the sauce instead of cream? Will it still work?
No, you need the cream! x
Can’t wait to try this! Is dried chopped dates ok?
Yes! I would just add them to the water still to soften xx
Hi Jane! Live your recipes! Can this be frozen?
It can be frozen before sauce is added! x
Hi Jane, what kind of baking dish would you suggest? And does it need to be greased? So it won’t stick? Thanks. Karina.
You can use a rectangle or round dish such as ceramic dish (about 30x20cm?!) – and you can grease it if you want (but as it’s served from the dish I don’t mind it overly important) x
Hi Jane! Sticky toffee is one of my favourites of all time, so thank you for this recipe! Dull question – if I leave out the dates, do I skip the water too?
Yes, leave out the date mixture and use the 250ml of milk total instead!