Pudding Baking

Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding

We love to spread half the toffee sauce on the base of the pudding dish before spooning the sponge cake mixture on top - it makes for a wonderfully squidgy bottom.

30 minutes prep, 1 hour cook

Serves 8

Ingredients

200g Medjool dates, stoned and roughly chopped

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

250ml boiling water

50g unsalted butter, softened

75g golden caster sugar

100g dark muscovado sugar

2 medium eggs, beaten

175g self-raising flour

A pinch of salt

A pinch of ground cloves

65g stem ginger, finely chopped

For the sauce:

115g unsalted butter

115g soft dark brown sugar

150ml double cream

To serve:

Your ice cream of choice

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas mark 4.

Begin with the sauce. Simply put all the sauce ingredients into a small saucepan and warm over a medium heat until everything has come together and the sugar has melted.

Bring to a gentle simmer and bubble for 3–4 minutes before removing from the heat, stirring all the while.

Pour half the sauce into a (2-litre) 3½- pint ceramic ovenproof dish and transfer to the refrigerator. The remaining sauce can happily sit in the saucepan until needed.

To make the pudding, put the dates and bicarbonate of soda into a small saucepan and cover with the boiling water.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes before removing from the heat and gently mashing with a fork or blitzing to a thick paste with a handheld blender.

Beat the butter and both the sugars together in a bowl until well combined, then add the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the flour, salt and ground cloves and continue to mix until everything is evenly distributed.

Stir through the date paste and mix well. Finally, add the stem ginger. Pour the mixture into the ovenproof dish, over the toffee sauce, and transfer to the oven. Bake for 30–35 minutes.

Remove the pudding from the oven before pouring over the remaining toffee sauce, roughly spreading to cover the pudding evenly. Return to the oven for a final 3–4 minutes before placing on the table. Serve with ice cream.