Sticky Toffee Pudding

Hello everyone! Welcome back to the kitchen! Today, I’m excited to share one of my all-time favorite desserts—sticky toffee pudding. 

Each day seems an ideal time to savor this type of dessert without getting bored of it. A delightful dessert consists of a tender bread cake which receives a generous coating of sweet caramel sauce tinged with salt. The mixture offers complete comfort through its deliciousness which becomes even better with ice cream served alongside. Let’s get started!

Why I Love This Recipe

This recipe is straightforward. Sticky date pudding is another name for this dish, and its components are among the common kitchen supplies. Most kitchen pantry items make up the recipe although it is also known as sticky date pudding. I love its finishing, especially that delicious sauce. 🙂

You can also prepare it in a large baking dish; if you have more time, you can make it in small muffin tins.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Ingredients

For the Sticky Toffee Pudding

• Butter (softened) – 200g
• Light brown sugar – 200g
• Eggs—2 large
• Treacle – 2 tbsp
• Golden syrup – 2 tbsp
• Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
• Plain flour – 200g
• Dates (roughly chopped) – 200g
• Water – 150 ml
• baking soda – 1 tsp

For the Salted Caramel Sauce

• Dark brown sugar – 200g
• Butter – 100g
• Golden syrup—2 tbsp (or corn syrup as an alternative)
• Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
• heavy cream – 150 ml
• Sea salt – 1 tbsp 

How to Make Sticky Toffee Pudding

1. Make Cream

• We must blend softened butter with light brown sugar to create a mixture. Smooth and fluffy consistency in the mixture leads to pleasant tasting puddings. The mixture needs to be beaten until it shifts from a lumpier textured darker color into a smooth fluffy consistency.

2. Add Eggs

• The eggs will be incorporated one at a time into the mixture after its smooth consistency is achieved. The recipe requires two eggs for its preparation. Add one egg, blend it, then add the second egg; this way, the mixture mixes well.

3. Add More Flavour

• Once the eggs are well incorporated, it’s time to add a bit of sweetness. I use golden syrup for this. I love it because it adds a dark, rich flavor. When golden syrup is unavailable people can substitute it with molasses during the baking process. Among all syrup alternatives golden syrup is the best but corn syrup proves as a suitable replacement when no other choice exists. After that, add vanilla extract.

4. Mix in the flour

• Ok, now let’s jump into the flour. However, let us first prepare the dates; this will be the next thing we must do as we prepare the ingredients for the main preparation.

5. Cook the Dates

• In another saucepan, melt some slightly sliced dates on medium heat. These are rich, sweet, and sticky, and they will give that texture to the sticky toffee pudding. Cut them up and place them directly into a saucepan. 

6. Simmer the Dates

• Pour a little water into the saucepan with the dates and let everything come to a slow boil. While that is on a low boil, we can separately work the flour into our butter-sugar mixture and make sure it is fully incorporated.

7. Add the Bicarbonate of Soda

• Once the dates have softened up, turn your attention to the saucepan where you put the dates. It will boil and foam, where the entire process starts and takes place.

8. Mix the Date Mixture with the Batter

• Since the date mixture is soft and bubbly, release it onto the batter while it is hot.

9. Prepare the Baking Dish

• Grease one large baking dish (don’t bother with individual molds; pour the entire mixture into one dish). In this way, serving it directly to the table is comfortable, which is easier than other methods. Easy to use—no more wasting time filling each little mold in a loaf pan. 

10. Bake the Pudding

• Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish and bake it at 160°C and 320°F for nearly 45 minutes. All you want is for the edges to appear set while the middle slightly jiggles and the top is supposed to be golden brown.

Easy way to make Salted Caramel Sauce for Sticky Toffee Pudding

1. We should make a basic caramel sauce during the baking period of the pudding. You will find this version simple because melting sugar perfectly is not required. It’s just a quick & easy process. 
2. Take a pot and add some dark brown sugar along with butter. Heat them gently over medium heat while stirring until they combine.
3. After that, add golden syrup or vanilla. Using corn syrup as a substitute for golden syrup will result in a pudding with different flavor than traditional. After combining all ingredients you should incorporate vanilla extract to enhance its flowery aroma. Mix everything.
4. Once the cream is ready, add 1 tablespoon of sea salt. You can add less if you prefer, as it depends on your taste. It’ll give a salty taste that balances out the sweetness.
5. Sustain boiling heat for one minute to allow the product to achieve thickening consistency. Position the mixture to cool down before transferring it to a holding container. You can also keep it in the fridge for up to 7 days without it going bad.

To Serve Sticky Toffee Pudding

Prepare the pudding

• When it is ready, your sticky toffee pudding will smell as great as it is in the oven. If the pudding is cold before serving, return it to the microwave and heat it for 1-2 minutes.

Pour the Sauce

• When the pudding is still hot, serve that yummy sticky toffee sauce right over the pudding, and add a dash of sea salt on top as the final garnish if you wish. But if you take a potent hot sauce and pour it over a warm and spongy material, this is when it gets genuinely potent!

Serve

• It is best served with ice cream scoops on top. Combined with pounds and scoops, the temperature difference between pudding and ice cream is amazing.

Enjoy

The combination of a big sticky toffee pudding portion served with caramel sauce and ice cream is purely delightful to me. It’s perfect!

Common Mistakes When Preparing Sticky Toffee Pudding and How to Prevent Them

1. Oven Temperature Challenges

Mistake: You should carefully regulate the baking temperature, as any fluctuation in the temperature can easily ruin your pudding. Too high heat threatens to burn the outer surface while the inside remains pale and ugly.

Solution: Preheat it to 190°C (350°F) or whichever equivalent your conventional oven gives. Compared to fan ovens, conventional ovens operate slightly lower than, thus making it necessary to set the correct temperatures that will yield that perfect baked food.

2. Batter Mixing Mistakes

Mistake: Excessive preparation turns your possibly fluffy, lightweight asset into a compacted, thick, and heavy mass.

Solution: Fold gently, and mix them until they are no longer separate. Accept a few small lumps, as it is more challenging to overmix pudding; lumps will melt away in the heat of the oven and yield a tender crumb.

4. Sugar Selection Struggles

Mistake: Picking the wrong sugar type will cause significant loss in the density and the natural overt stickiness of the pudding.

Solution: It is recommended to use dark brown sugar for getting a richer, deeper flavor of the sugar. If you want to add that British traditional flavor to your recipe, use black treacle, which has quite a strong, treacly, malty, molasses-like taste.

Final Words

And there you have it—a perfect Sticky Toffee Pudding with a rich Salted Caramel Sauce! This parfait is soothing, rich, and an excellent dish for significant events since preparation does not require much time. 

The warm pudding with caramel sauce & ice cream is unbeatable. It’s one of my all-time top 5 favorite desserts to order if I am stranded on an island, and I’m pretty confident it will also be a favorite of yours.

Try it and let me know whether you’re a fan like I am.