Sticky toffee pudding is one of the simplest puddings in the British repertoire — and one of the easiest to ruin. Dry sponge, thin sauce, refrigerated leftovers that taste like cardboard. Avoiding all three takes only a little care.
The dates do the work
Use Medjool dates, stones removed, soaked in just-boiled black tea with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. Twenty minutes of soaking softens them and the bicarb breaks down the skins. Blitz to a paste. This is what gives the pudding its dark, almost caramel character.
Don’t overmix
Cream butter and dark muscovado sugar, beat in eggs, fold in the date paste, then the flour. The moment the flour disappears, stop. Overmixing is what gives you a tough, dense crumb. The texture you want is loose and almost wet.
The sauce, twice
Butter, dark brown sugar, double cream — equal weights, melted together, simmered until glossy. Pour half over the pudding while it is still hot from the oven. Reserve the rest, warm, to pour at the table. Don’t refrigerate. Sticky toffee pudding is not a pudding that improves overnight.
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