Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe
Ultra moist Sticky toffee pudding made with browned butter, tender dates, and warm spices, then drenched in a rich homemade toffee sauce.
Equipment
- Food Processor or Immersion Blender
Ingredients
To soak the dates:
- 2 cups (300 g) Medjool Dates, (pitted and chopped)
- 2 Black Tea Bags, (optional)
- 1 1/4 cups (300 g) Whole Milk
- 3 tbsp (63 g) Molasses
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
Date Cake
- 3/4 cup (168 g) Salted Butter
- 2 tbsp Milk Powder, (optional)
- 3 tbsp (42 g) Vegetable Oil
- 1 cup (220 g) Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Bean Paste , (or vanilla extract)
- 3 large (150 g) Eggs, (room temperature)
- 1/3 cup (80 g) Sour Cream, (room temperature)
- 2 1/2 cups (313 g) All Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 3/4 tsp Kosher Salt
Sticky Toffee Sauce
- 3/4 cup (168 g) Salted Butter
- 1 cup (220 g) Brown Sugar
- 1/4 cup (84 g) Honey
- 1 1/2 cups (360 g) Heavy Cream
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- In a small saucepan over medium low heat, add whole milk and warm for about 5-7 minutes, until warm throughout (not boiling). (If using pitted dates, be sure to remove the bits before chopping up!) Add chopped dates, molasses, black tea bags, and baking soda. Stir together, remove from heat and allow the mixture to sit for 30 minutes. 1 1/4 cups Whole Milk 2 cups Medjool Dates 3 tbsp Molasses 2 Black Tea Bags 1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- While the date mixture is sitting, brown butter in a skillet. Add butter to a skillet over medium heat. Once melted, add milk powder, whisking constantly, and continue to cook until the butter comes foamy and golden brown (it should also have a fragrant, nutty smell - yum!) Let that cool for about ten minutes. 3/4 cup Salted Butter 2 tbsp Milk Powder
- After 30 minutes, remove the black tea bags from the date mixture and pour everything into a food processor (or immersion blender) and blend until smooth, about 30-40 seconds. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper so that there's about 2 inches overhang - this allows for easy removal from the pan after it's baked.
- Pour browned butter in a large bowl (make sure to get those browned bits, that’s where all of the flavor is), add vegetable oil and dark brown sugar. Whisk together for about 1 minute, until the sugar begins to dissolve. Add in vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract), eggs, and sour cream and continue to whisk together until combined, about 30 seconds. 3 tbsp Vegetable Oil 1 cup Dark Brown Sugar 1 tbsp Vanilla Bean Paste 3 large Eggs 1/3 cup Sour Cream
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients - all purpose flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and kosher salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together until just combined, about 15 seconds. Then add all of the date puree and continue to mix until just combined, about 20 seconds. 2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour 1 tsp Ground Ginger 1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon 1/2 tsp Nutmeg 2 tsp Baking Powder 3/4 tsp Kosher Salt
- Add the remainder of the flour mixture and fold into the cake batter with a rubber spatula, until smooth and no patches of flour remain, about 20-30 seconds. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer. Bake in the preheat oven to 55-65 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
- While the cake is baking, make the sticky toffee sauce. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Once melted, add brown sugar to the melted butter along with honey and whisk together. Cook for about 3 minutes, until slightly bubbling, then add heavy cream. Mix together and reduce heat to medium low. Cook for about 20 minutes, until slightly thickened and darkened in color. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract. 3/4 cup Salted Butter 1 cup Brown Sugar 1/4 cup Honey 1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- After the cake has cooled for about 10 minutes, poke several holes into the cake, going all the way down to the bottom. Pour about half of the toffee sauce on top of the cake. Allow it to seep into the cake, about 2 minutes, then pour half of the remaining sauce on top. Let the cake sit for about 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and serve. (It’ll still be pretty warm so handle carefully .. but the cake is best served warm). Serve the warm cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or vanilla custard sauce and drizzle remaining toffee sauce on top!
Notes
Pro Tips
- Let the dates sit in the milk for the full 30 minutes, making sure that they’re submerged in the milk. This is key to getting that silky texture when you add them to blend in the food processor.
- It’s integral to line the baking pan with parchment paper. This allows for easy removal after baking. Once the toffee sauce is added, the cake can become very difficult to remove from the pan. So, be sure not to skip lining the baking pan first!
- Blend the dates until smooth - it’s ok if there’s a few chunks here and there, but it should be mostly smooth. This gives the sticky toffee pudding its smooth texture without being lumpy.
- Pour the toffee sauce on top of the cake in increments. Don’t pour all of the sauce on top of the cake at once. Pouring a little at a time allows for max absorption.
- The cake may sink a bit in the middle after baking - this is totally normal!
- A lot of sticky toffee pudding recipes use boiling water to soak the dates, but I like to use hot milk. It gives it a richer flavor. However, if you prefer hot water, you can use that instead.
- Traditionally, golden syrup is used in the rich toffee sauce instead of honey - so if you have golden syrup, use that instead!
- If you don't have vanilla bean paste, vanilla extract or whole vanilla pods scraped into the hot milk mixture works perfectly.
- The black tea bags are optional but do add a lovely depth of flavor!
Nutrition
Calories: 733kcal, Carbohydrates: 88g, Protein: 7g, Fat: 41g, Saturated Fat: 24g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g, Monounsaturated Fat: 10g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 149mg, Sodium: 591mg, Potassium: 444mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 65g, Vitamin A: 1344IU, Vitamin C: 0.4mg, Calcium: 185mg, Iron: 2mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tried this recipe?Mention @BritneyBreaksBread or tag #BritneyBreaksBread!