The Hebridean Baker's boozy sticky toffee pudding
Where's the best place in the world to dig into dessert? For Coinneach, nothing beats a wee pub in the Highlands, especially when there's sticky toffee pudding on the menu! Drenched in a delicious rum toffee sauce, each bite is a mix of deep caramel and super soft sponge. It's pure pudding heaven and a proper Friday treat!
The Hebriddean Baker’s Sticky Boozy Toffee Pudding (Taken from The Scottish Cookbook)
Ingredients
For the pudding:
240g whole dates, stoned and roughly chopped 225ml hot black tea1½ teaspoons vanilla bean pasta 135g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing 225g light muscovado sugar3 large eggs3 tablespoons black treacle260g self-raising flour1½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda 150ml milk
For the rum toffee sauce: 75g soft light brown sugar50g butter300ml double cream2 tablespoons black treacle 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste 3 tablespoons dark spiced rum
Method
To make the pudding
1. Soak the dates in black tea in a mixing bowl for 30 minutes until cool. Mash the dates and tea mix to a rough pulp with a fork and mix in the vanilla. Set aside.
2. Generously butter a 23cm ovenproof dish and preheat your oven to 150C fan.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, thoroughly incorporating each before adding the next, then beat in the black treacle.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Alternately, in thirds, fold the flour mixture and milk into the batter until just combined. Now stir in the date mixture, including any liquid.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared dish and bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. If needed, cover with foil after 40 minutes to prevent excess browning.
To make the sauce and serve
6. Add the sugar, butter and half of the cream to a pan. Gently heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat, add the treacle, vanilla and rum, then simmer for 2 to 3 minutes until you achieve a rich toffee colour. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining cream. 7. Allow the pudding to cool for 15 minutes, then pierce with a skewer and pour over half the sauce. After a further 10 minutes, serve with the remaining sauce, accompanied by vanilla ice cream.