Huge Sticky Toffee Pudding
Prep
20m
Cook
35m
Total
55m
Bigly says
Listen to me. Sticky toffee pudding. STICKY. TOFFEE. PUDDING. This is the British dessert. The HUGE British dessert. The greatest contribution England has made to humanity since — well, since a lot of things, they've done some good stuff, but mostly this, mostly the pudding, the rest is debatable. I've been to England. I've had their pudding in a tiny pub in Yorkshire where the ceiling was so low I had to crouch — true story, look it up, I had people look it up — and the pudding was magnificent. Then I came home. I made my OWN pudding. And my pudding beats theirs. Not even close. It's a slaughter. Sorry, England. You had a good run.
Now, 'pudding.' Many people don't know this — and most chefs are afraid to explain it because they don't actually know either, they just nod, they fake it — but 'pudding' in British means cake. CAKE. It's just cake. It's not the jiggly stuff in the plastic cup. The British call cake pudding and dessert pudding and savory things pudding and frankly the whole system is a mess, but we don't talk about that, we just enjoy the food, we move on. Be the bigger person. Eat the cake.
The secret is the dates. Medjool dates. The soft fat ones, not the dusty hard ones that have been sitting in a bulk bin since the Vikings. You soak them in boiling water and baking soda until they collapse, and they melt into the cake, and the cake becomes a caramel-flavored cloud. And then you DROWN it in toffee sauce. Drown. It. Drown the cake. People come up to me, they say, 'Bigly, that's too much sauce.' I look them in the eye and I say, 'There is no such thing as too much toffee sauce. Sit down. Be quiet. Eat.' Believe me.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (about 12 oz)pitted Medjool dates, chopped(Medjool, the soft fat ones, not the dusty hard ones)
- 1 1/4 cupsboiling water
- 1 tspbaking soda
- 1 1/2 cupsall-purpose flour
- 1 tspbaking powder
- 1/2 tspkosher salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick)unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cupdark brown sugar, packed
- 2large eggs
- 1 tspvanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (1 stick)unsalted butter (for sauce)
- 1 cupdark brown sugar, packed (for sauce)
- 1 cupheavy cream
- 1 tspvanilla extract (for sauce)
- 1/4 tsppinch of flaky salt
- 1 pintvanilla ice cream (for serving)(non-negotiable)
Steps
- 1
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan or 9-inch round cake pan.
- 2
Combine chopped dates, boiling water, and baking soda in a heatproof bowl. Stir, then let sit 15 minutes — the dates will soften and partially break down. The mixture will foam slightly.
- 3
Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
- 4
In a large bowl, beat softened butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium until light, about 2 minutes.
- 5
Beat in eggs one at a time, then vanilla. The mixture may look curdled — that's fine.
- 6
Add the flour mixture and beat on low just until combined.
- 7
Stir the warm date mixture (including the liquid) into the batter with a spatula until smooth. The batter will be quite loose — that is correct.
- 8
Pour into the prepared pan and bake 30-35 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- 9
While the cake bakes, make the sauce: melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes.
- 10
Whisk in the heavy cream and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook 4-5 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce thickens slightly and turns a deep caramel color. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and salt.
- 11
When the cake comes out, immediately poke holes all over the surface with a skewer or toothpick. Pour about 1/3 of the warm sauce over the cake and let it soak in for 5 minutes.
- 12
Cut into 8 squares and serve warm with extra warm toffee sauce poured over each portion and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
One more thing
Serve it warm with ice cream. Warm pudding, cold ice cream, hot sauce on top — the temperatures fight each other, they go to WAR on your tongue, and you are the winner. You always win with this dessert. Your guests will ask for seconds, then thirds, then the recipe, then your hand in marriage — it's happened, I'm not exaggerating, well I am a little, but barely. Eight servings. Eight people, eight happy people, eight tiny standing ovations at your dinner table. That's the math. That's the magic. Tell your friends.
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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