There’s nothing like a sweet dessert to top off a great meal, and host Holly’s sticky toffee pudding is one you need to try! Here she’s sharing her family recipe.
This recipe reminds me of my amazing mum! She used to make this for my sister and I when we were little girls. I remember opening the front door and smelling the sweetness surrounding the room. She always used to serve it just at the right temperature and with a BIG dollop of vanilla ice cream, which we could never finish. These are the things that make her my mum and I am forever proud and inspired by not only her cooking, but her strength too!
Host Holly
Ingredients
For the sponge
- 200g soft dried pitted dates, roughly chopped
- 200ml water from a freshly boiled kettle
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 75g unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing
- 2 tbsp black treacle
- 50g dark muscovado sugar
- 2 large free-range eggs, at room temperature
- 150g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
For the sauce
- 150g unsalted butter, softened
- 300g dark muscovado sugar
- 1 tbsp black treacle
- 200ml double cream, plus more to serve
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 320°F
- Fan and lightly grease your dish
- Put the chopped dates, boiling water and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl, stir and then leave for 10 minutes.
- Cream the butter and black treacle together in a stand mixer until well mixed, then add the sugar and mix again, beating out any lumps. Beat in an egg and keep beating – scraping down as necessary – until completely incorporated, then do the same with the other egg. Beating more gently, add the flour and baking powder until you have a smooth, thick batter.
- Using a fork, stir the soaked dates, squishing them a bit, then pour the dates and their liquid into the batter and beat gently to mix in.
- Pour and scrape into your prepared dish or cake tin and bake for 30–35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Meanwhile, to make the sauce, melt the butter, muscovado sugar and treacle over very low heat in a heavy-based saucepan. Once the butter’s melted, stir gently until everything else is melted too. Now stir in the cream, then turn up the heat and when it’s bubbling and hot, take it off the heat.
- As soon as it’s out of the oven, prick the cooked sponge pudding all over with a cocktail stick and pour about a quarter of the warm sauce over, easing it to the edges with a spatula so that the sponge is entirely topped with a thick sticky glaze. Put a lid on the remaining sauce in the pan to keep it warm.
- Leave the pudding to stand for 20–30 minutes, then take to the table, with the rest of the sauce in a jug, and cream to serve.
