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Sticky Toffee Pudding


Patrick S

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I tried this stuff for the first time last night, and I like it quite a bit. I mostly followed the recipe used by Dalvay by the Sea, a resort hotel on Prince Edward Island. I deviated from the recipe by using 8 rather than 6tb of butter in the cake, by using a 9" springform rather than a 8x8 pan, and I used Sherry Yard's caramel sauce recipe rather than the toffee sauce recipe. For the sauce, I used 3 parts white sugar to 1 part brown (the butterscotch variation), and sour cream rather than creme fraiche. This sauce is also my new favorite caramel sauce, but thats another thread.

This stuff is really good. I'm eager to hear everyone else's thoughts, recipes, and experiences.

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Edited by Patrick S (log)

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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I love sticky toffee pudding.

I like to make it in individual ramekins. I slice the cakes in half and spoon some sauce into the middle and then top with the remaining sauce.

Once you've put the sauce on, return it to the oven so that the sauce soaks into the cake. It looks more like a gewy cake than the separate cake-sauce version you made, Patrick.

Turn out the indiviual cakes, letting sauce pool around the bottom, and serve with whipped cream.

I will dig up my recipe, but I have also made the version you listed and it is similar. However, I would add that the lesser amount of butter in the cake is fine, I have found the cake is moist because of the dates, and its texture is good for absorbing the syrup.

Glad you enjoyed it, beautiful pictures as usual.

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...

and I used Sherry Yard's caramel sauce recipe rather than the toffee sauce recipe. For the sauce, I used 3 parts white sugar to 1 part brown (the butterscotch variation), and sour cream rather than creme fraiche. This sauce is also my new favorite caramel sauce, but thats another thread.

gallery_23736_355_21753.jpg

Ok, I'll be the first to gush! :smile: That looks terrific-- and thanks for the extra tips on making it. I will definately be trying it.

Hope you do follow up with a discussion/recipe on your favorite caramel sauce recipe...

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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Patrick S - as usual your baking looks amazing and your pictures are so clear and crisp that I just want to take a spoon and reach in for a taste! I've never made Sticky Toffee pudding so I look forward to reading everyone's thoughts!

Support your local farmer

Currently reading:

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

Just finished reading:

The 100-Mile Diet by Alisa Smith & J. B. MacKinnon

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Sticky Toffee Pudding is one of my favourite recipes ever! The recipe I use is based from an Epicurious recipe, but I've made a few minor changes.

I guess the caramel sauce isn't a "true" caramel, since I only use brown sugar. However, I've made real caramel with white sugar before, and I can't really tell the difference, and the brown sugar sauce comes together so much easier. :smile:

10 oz. pitted dates

2 cups water

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs

*sometimes I add a bit of ground ginger as well (if I have any on hand)

Caramel sauce:

1 cup unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

1 cup whipping cream

1 tbsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, butter and flour bundt pan.

2. Chop up the dates and add it to 2 cups water, simmer for about 5 minutes, then add the baking soda (off the heat). The dates will start foaming; stir the mixture around with a spoon. Let the mixture stand off the heat for about 15 minutes.

3. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt together in a big bowl. In another bowl, cream the 1/2 cup of butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, beat well after each addition.

4. Add the flour in thirds, and beat well after each addition. Then stir in the date mixture (doesn't look too pretty or smell too good, does it? Don't worry though. )

5. Pour the batter into the bundt pan, and place the bundt pan in another larger pan of water. Put the pans in the oven and bake the cake for 35-40 minutes. Cool the cake on a rack for a bit. (I like to eat the cake quite hot, with plenty of warm caramel sauce over the top!)

Sauce:

1. Melt the butter, add the sugar and salt, stir until boiling.

2. Lower heat until the butter and sugar mixture is simmering. Add whipping cream and vanilla, and then reduce it to a consistency that you like (probably a little over 5 minutes).

edit: I use the same caramel sauce on my cheesecakes. Actually, the caramel sauce is so good, I sometimes just eat it with a big spoon. :laugh:

Edited by Ling (log)
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...

and I used Sherry Yard's caramel sauce recipe rather than the toffee sauce recipe. For the sauce, I used 3 parts white sugar to 1 part brown (the butterscotch variation), and sour cream rather than creme fraiche. This sauce is also my new favorite caramel sauce, but thats another thread.

gallery_23736_355_21753.jpg

Ok, I'll be the first to gush! :smile: That looks terrific-- and thanks for the extra tips on making it. I will definately be trying it.

Hope you do follow up with a discussion/recipe on your favorite caramel sauce recipe...

Thanks Ludja!

From memory, the sauce went as follows (if I make any errors, I'll correct them tonight when I have Yard's book in front of me): Mix 1.5C white sugar, 0.5C light brown sugar, 4Tb corn syrup and 0.5C water in medium pan. Cook over med-high heat until you reach 300F, then reduce heat to med. When you reach 350-355F, take pan from heat, let bubbles subside, then add 1C heavy cream (warmed in microwave), 0.5C sour cream, 1t vanilla, 1t lemon juice, and a good pinch of salt. Whisk to mix it all together. You may have to put the pan back on the heat for a few minutes to get all the hardened caramel bits incorporated.

Like I said, this is my favorite caramel sauce now. Its nice and dark, smooth in appearance, and has a more complex flavor than most caramel sauces due to the sour cream and lemon juice (not to mention truly caramelized sugar).

Edited by Patrick S (log)

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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...

Like I said, this is my favorite caramel sauce now. Its nice and dark, smooth in appearance, and has a more complex flavor than most caramel sauces due to the sour cream and lemon juice (not to mention truly caramelized sugar).

Thanks, I'm a real caramel fan--and the recipe is intriguingly different than some of the 'standards'.

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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My first job in pastry involved a year-long indentured-servitude to a staff of English chefs. I never saw so many differing opinions on sticky toffee pudding, but there was a consensus on one point:

the sauce had to soak the entire cake, penetrating all of the crumb.

Your version looks more refined and delicate (yet still moist) which I actually prefer to the stodgy stuff. Beautiful photo, of course.

I've experimented with just about 20 recipes before designing one I found satisfying. The only thing anyone should know before making it is this:

Be careful soaking the dates! An assistant once soaked them in a reactive pot, leaving me to ask why the batter was green.

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Hello. I remember eating sticky toffee pudding when I visited Bath in the UK several years ago. I recall the small square I purchased in a sweet shop and it was quite dense, darker in colour and crowned with a dollop of caramel sauce. I lost the top to a cat who was trailing me but I got to eat the bottom. Anyways, I like the looks of your creation.

I might try it and serve it up for a St Patrick's Day potluck.

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  • 8 months later...
...

and I used Sherry Yard's caramel sauce recipe rather than the toffee sauce recipe. For the sauce, I used 3 parts white sugar to 1 part brown (the butterscotch variation), and sour cream rather than creme fraiche. This sauce is also my new favorite caramel sauce, but thats another thread.

gallery_23736_355_21753.jpg

Ok, I'll be the first to gush! :smile: That looks terrific-- and thanks for the extra tips on making it. I will definately be trying it.

Hope you do follow up with a discussion/recipe on your favorite caramel sauce recipe...

Thanks Ludja!

From memory, the sauce went as follows (if I make any errors, I'll correct them tonight when I have Yard's book in front of me): Mix 1.5C white sugar, 0.5C light brown sugar, 4Tb corn syrup and 0.5C water in medium pan. Cook over med-high heat until you reach 300F, then reduce heat to med. When you reach 350-355F, take pan from heat, let bubbles subside, then add 1C heavy cream (warmed in microwave), 0.5C sour cream, 1t vanilla, 1t lemon juice, and a good pinch of salt. Whisk to mix it all together. You may have to put the pan back on the heat for a few minutes to get all the hardened caramel bits incorporated.

Like I said, this is my favorite caramel sauce now. Its nice and dark, smooth in appearance, and has a more complex flavor than most caramel sauces due to the sour cream and lemon juice (not to mention truly caramelized sugar).

Hello All I have the toffee on and look at my thermometer - are you sure they said 300 degrees and 350-355 degrees F? Because that's some hot sugar. I have a guest who said something about Sticky Toffee Pudding - So I'm in there boiling this sugar. Quick can someone confirm these temps? Thanks.

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...

and I used Sherry Yard's caramel sauce recipe rather than the toffee sauce recipe. For the sauce, I used 3 parts white sugar to 1 part brown (the butterscotch variation), and sour cream rather than creme fraiche. This sauce is also my new favorite caramel sauce, but thats another thread.

gallery_23736_355_21753.jpg

Ok, I'll be the first to gush! :smile: That looks terrific-- and thanks for the extra tips on making it. I will definately be trying it.

Hope you do follow up with a discussion/recipe on your favorite caramel sauce recipe...

Thanks Ludja!

From memory, the sauce went as follows (if I make any errors, I'll correct them tonight when I have Yard's book in front of me): Mix 1.5C white sugar, 0.5C light brown sugar, 4Tb corn syrup and 0.5C water in medium pan. Cook over med-high heat until you reach 300F, then reduce heat to med. When you reach 350-355F, take pan from heat, let bubbles subside, then add 1C heavy cream (warmed in microwave), 0.5C sour cream, 1t vanilla, 1t lemon juice, and a good pinch of salt. Whisk to mix it all together. You may have to put the pan back on the heat for a few minutes to get all the hardened caramel bits incorporated.

Like I said, this is my favorite caramel sauce now. Its nice and dark, smooth in appearance, and has a more complex flavor than most caramel sauces due to the sour cream and lemon juice (not to mention truly caramelized sugar).

Hello All I have the toffee on and look at my thermometer - are you sure they said 300 degrees and 350-355 degrees F? Because that's some hot sugar. I have a guest who said something about Sticky Toffee Pudding - So I'm in there boiling this sugar. Quick can someone confirm these temps? Thanks.

When I make caramel sauce, yes, I routinely cook the sugar to ~350F before adding butter and cream. Be careful though, because once you are at 350F, the temp is likely to be rising quickly, and it is easy to burn the sugar.

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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Patrick - your stuff is always so beautiful. Damn!

I've used the recipe in Jane Grigson's "Good Things" and it is very good. As mdhl says - the english and aussie versions are usually soaked through with the syrup. Ling's caramel sauce recipe is basically the same one that Jane Grigson uses.

I doused a gingerbread cake that I got from Laurie Colwin (who gets it from Delia Smith) with the caramel sauce and it was really good. Especially when the caked aged for a couple days.

Still - your cake is gorgeous.

Edited by canucklehead (log)
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^I forgot to mention that during the last 10 minutes of baking, I like to pour a thick river of caramel sauce on top of the cake, then return it to the oven. The cake isn't completely soaked through with sauce when it comes out of the oven, but it does get moist and sticky. Then top your slice with another ladle of caramel sauce and you're set. :smile:

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We certainly enjoyed last night's sauce and cake.  I did not heat the sugar as much, I took it to hard ball (260 F) stage and continued with the recette as if I had brought it up to 350F, I just thought it might solidify on me!  It still made a nice thick sauce.    :smile:

I'm glad it turned out well for you! But let me assure you that magical (and tasty) things happen to sugar when you heat it above 300 degrees, and you can do this without having it solidify.

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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“ 'Make a remark,' said the Red Queen; 'it's ridiculous to leave all the conversation to the pudding!' ” – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Susheela Uhl wrote in the July 2001 edition of Food Product Design that “English puddings are popular desserts.” That is surely an example of simplistic understatement! As British restaurant critic, Terry Durack, confessed: "I could argue that sticky toffee pudding is an occupational hazard, but the truth is, I am not a restaurant critic for my health." (The Independent on Sunday; Jan. 25, 2004.) At least on this point, I offer Mr. Durack my sincerest understanding -- and a second helping of the pudding.

I have served a similar version of this recipe on more than a dozen occasions. Made with Wholesome Sweeteners’ Organic Succanat, the flavor of the pudding is transmuted to a hedonistic experience, Dervishly swirling the brain’s pleasure center. Best served with vanilla-bean ice cream, always enjoyed by the appreciative diners. And, I should add, the sticky-fingered cook, too.

Another scrumptious version of this excellent (and very filling dessert) is provided on p. 31 of Margaret Johnson’s Irish Puddings, Tarts, Crumbles, and Fools published last year by Chronicle Books. Her sauce comprises 2 fl. cups heavy cream, ½ cup dark-brown sugar, and 2 Tbsps. molasses or dark corn syrup. It looks most splendid when turned out of a scultped pudding mold. Clotted cream is an ideal accompaniment.

Likewise, Nigella Lawson – in keeping with her prefatory note, “Never Knowingly Undercatered” – offers ( Nigella Bites; Hyperion, 2002) a straighforward sticky-pudding cake:

110 g dark muscovado sugar

175 g self-raising flour

125 ml full-fat milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

50 g butter

200 g chopped dates

In D.C., Chef Bob Kinkead further enriches his sticky-toffee date puddings with dried cranberries & cherries (and even spoons fresh cherries into the port-flavored sauce). And, according to a report last year in Nation's Restaurant News, Gale Gand has served Sticky Toffee Pudding with a root beer float!

“Can there be more wanted on the Meditation on a Pudding? If more be wanted, more can be found.” – Samuel Johnson, in Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Dr. Johnson.

Edited by Redsugar (log)

"Dinner is theater. Ah, but dessert is the fireworks!" ~ Paul Bocuse

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I'm a fan of steamed puddings so simply put some (1/4 cup or so) of the caramel sauce in the bottom of the pudding basin, batter on top (your basic STP recipe which called for oven baking), wrapped it up, stuck it in a pot of simmering water (1/2 way up sides of basin) and let it bubble away for about two hours. Turn it out onto platter, pour a little more sauce over for presentation, put the rest into a jug for serving, cut pudding into wedges and douse with more sauce.

One of my customers, a teenaged boy, when I gave him a sampling and asked him what his favorite dessert in the world was replied, "THIS is now!"

kit

"I'm bringing pastry back"

Weebl

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<gulp>

I cheat and buy this stuff.

Absolutely amazing, truly...

</gulp>

I just saw an episode of Rick Stein's Food Hero's that featured The Cartmel Village Shop which is the original maker of the sticky toffee pudding that is made by the English Pudding Co in the US. The English Pudding Co. is owned by the son of the owner of the Cartmel Village Shop. His mother made her famous sticky toffee pudding on the show. It looked yummy.

Edited by Swisskaese (log)
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