Sticky Toffee Pudding, Sticky Toffee Sauce (serves 10)

Ingredients

For The Toffee Pudding

• 20oz sifted plain flour
• 2 and a half tbsp baking powder
• 15oz caster sugar
• 2 and half teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
• 1 and half pints of water
• 20oz pitted dates
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
• 5oz of soft butter
• 5 whole organic eggs

For The Toffee Sauce

• 2 cups of brown Demerara sugar
• 2 cups double cream
• 125g unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons of black treacle

Method

For The Toffee Pudding

Step 1. Place the water in a sauce pan, add the pitted dates, bring up to the boil and simmer the dates for 10 minutes, the reason for simmering the dates is to soften them up so they are not tough when they go into the sponge, after 10 minutes take the pan off the heat, strain the dates into a colander and leave to drain.

Step 2. Put the soft butter and caster sugar into a bowl and cream together using a whisk or wooden spoon, once creamed add the vanilla essence and beat in the eggs, 1 egg at a time until you have incorporated all 5 eggs into the butter and sugar mix.

Step 3. Into a bowl sift the flour, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda, then add this to the mix in step 2, use a wooden spoon and make sure you mix all of the ingredients together really well, you should have a batter like consistency. Once your mix is ready take your dates out of the colander, make sure there is no water and mix into the sponge mix.

Step 4. Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees, gas mark 4. Grease an ovenproof dish or cooking tin with deep edges and a holding capacity of about 2 litres with a little butter or baking paper, tip in the sponge mix and spread it out into all the corners of the dish so it cooks evenly, place the dish into the oven and cook it for about 25 minute until the sponge is springy.

A Little Tip...

Another way of testing to see if your sticky toffee pudding or any other sponge based dessert is cooked is to stick a small knife or skewer into the middle of the sponge, pull out the knife/skewer and if it comes out clean then your sponge is cooked through.

For The Toffee Sauce

For the toffee sauce place the sugar and butter into a heavy based sauce pan and slowly bring up to a medium heat, melt the butter and cook for 5 minutes stirring all the time, once the sugar starts dissolving add the double cream and black treacle and bring to a gentle simmer, simmer for 10 minutes stirring now and then, you will be left with a nice thick toffee sauce.

To serve cut your sponge into squares, spoon over the toffee sauce and serve with vanilla ice cream.