Sticky Date Pudding

It's always baffled me in this part of the world. Why is there a complete lack of sticky date pudding on menus here? It is one of the best desserts in the world, and we are living in the centre of all date production. It's a travesty. 

Recently, a bunch of fellow foodies and I (members of tabletalk.me) started a fun round of non-televised "Come dine with me". Sally from My Custard Pie has already popped a post up on this - I was first up, and am still reeling - I may talk about it soon, when I am ready to relive the horror that Sally didn't seem to see. 

Anyway, I thought I would introduce my foodie friends to Sticky Date Pudding. I have found out since, that the English "Sticky Toffee Pudding" is in fact similar, and does, despite the title, contain dates, and so it was no great surprise for Sally. It was however for Sukaina, who kindly oohed and ahhed and asked for the recipe. Here you go my dear...

Ingredients:

• 170g dates (about a cup, stoned and pitted and chopped)
• 300ml Boiling water
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 170g of flour (about 3/4 cup)
• 2 eggs
• 60 g butter
• 100 g brown sugar
• drizzle of vanilla essence

For the Sauce:

• 150g butter
• 250g brown sugar (about a cup)
• 2/3 cup cream

(note - I use metric cups, which are 250ml - not the American cup, which is closer to 200)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Put the dates and bicarbonate in your blender, and pour over the boiling water, then leave to rest.
2. Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs one by one, then stir in flour gently. 
3. Puree date mix roughly, then fold into batter. Pour into small doughnut molds and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a skewer tests clean and pudding springs back when lightly pressed.
4. While pudding is cooking, place sauce ingredients on the stove on a low heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Drench puddings in sauce, and serve warm with a scoop of marscapone or double cream, and make sure you also take a jug of extra sauce out for people to have more lashings of heaven.

I used mini doughnut molds, because I thought it gave a slight impression of a date plant. Besides that, however, they work like a bundt mold, and ensure the center is cooked perfectly whilst the outside doesn't get overcooked. This is not a self saucing style pudding - you want it cooked nicely all the way through. It is however, traditionally cooked in a round pan - 18-20cm would be best, and made this way, will take approximately 30-40 minutes to cook in the oven.