STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING

 

It’s not pret­ty, but it makes up for its looks in fla­vor.

Fun­ny sto­ry:  I spent two years reverse engi­neer­ing this dessert (and feel­ing pret­ty freak­ing smug about it), only to dis­cov­er the chef will give you the recipe if you ask for it.  This is my ver­sion, but I’m told by the impor­tant peo­ple in my life that I nailed the orig­i­nal.

I have to say that (short of being a canelé) this is prob­a­bly the best dessert ever made.  I’m talk­ing bet­ter than choco­late cake, lemon curd tart, pret­zel short­bread, world peace cook­ies, Sri Lankan wed­ding cake … I have had it on my birth­day many years run­ning, and there is always a doubt­ing Thomas or Thomasi­na who looks dis­ap­prov­ing­ly at the “rus­tic” vision drip­ping with tof­fee, only to end up hav­ing thirds.  Make this.  You won’t regret it.

 

Tof­fee Sauce

Com­bine 1 cup whip­ping cream, 1 cup unsalt­ed but­ter, and 2 cups of brown sug­ar over medi­um heat.  Stir, bring­ing to boil the mix­ture and boil for 5 min­utes.  Remove from heat and stir in 2 tsp of vanil­la.

 

Pud­ding Ingre­di­ents

6 oz pit­ted dates, chopped fine­ly

1 tsp bak­ing soda

1 1/4 cup boil­ing water

1/4 cup soft but­ter (1/2 stick)

1/2 cup brown sug­ar

1 egg

1 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp bak­ing pow­der

2 tsp vanil­la

Mal­don salt

 

Instruc­tions

Pre­heat oven to 350.  Mix dates, bak­ing soda, and boil­ing water in a bowl.  Set aside.

Grease and flour 6 small ramekins.  Put a heap­ing spoon­ful of the tof­fee in the bot­tom of each.  Beat sug­ar, but­ter, and vanil­la until fluffy.  Add egg and beat until smooth, then add the dates and water mix­ture.  Mix the flour and bak­ing pow­der togeth­er, then add to date mix­ture and mix just until blend­ed.

Divide the bat­ter even­ly into the 6 ramekins and bake for 15–20 min­utes, until cake stops jig­gling in the cen­ter and gen­tly springs back (don’t over­bake).  Remove from oven and run a sharp knife around the edge of each ramekin.  Invert each pud­ding onto a plate and pour the remain­ing warm tof­fee over the pud­dings.  Sprin­kle with a few grains salt, serve warm with vanil­la ice cream or chan­til­ly cream.

 

Some notes

Tof­fee is not caramel.  Caramel is made by brown­ing white sug­ar and adding heavy cream and but­ter (French caramel cooks the sugar/butter togeth­er first, then adds cream).  Tof­fee is made by com­bin­ing brown sug­ar, but­ter, and heavy cream togeth­er in a pan and boil­ing it.

I don’t think this is a good make-ahead dessert.  You can pre­make the tof­fee (and reheat) and you can let the bat­ter sit until you’re ready, but don’t bake the tof­fee pud­ding until just before you’re ready to eat it.

I don’t do gluten-free flour so I have no idea if it will work as a gluten free dessert.