Sticky Date Pudding

When it comes to the Christmas season, indulgence can be forgiven (wink). After many rounds of hits and misses, trial and error, searching through various recipes and failing, I finally discovered my favourite sticky date pudding recipe. This is not one of those recipes that has been passed on from generation to generation; instead, it’s a combination of a few recipes to which I’ve added some of my own twists.

Sticky Date Pudding

Ingredients:
250 pitted dates, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon of soda bicarbonate
1 ½ cups of boiling water
125g butter
1 cup brown sugar (I usually put less than 1 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
1 ¾ cups of flour (maida)
1 ½ teaspoon of baking power

For the caramel sauce:
1 cup brown sugar
300ml thickened cream
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
60g butter

Preheat the oven. Place chopped dates and soda bicarbonate in a bowl. Pour boiling water and allow it to stand for 15-20 mins.

Meanwhile, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla using an electric mixer until creamy. Add one egg at a time. Fold the flour and baking powder into the mixture until well combined (ensure flour and baking powder are sifted). Spoon the mixture into a greased pan or multiple ramekins and bake at 180° C for 40 mins or until the toothpick comes out clean.

For the caramel sauce, put all the ingredients together in a saucepan and heat it over medium heat. Stir often and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and allow the sauce to simmer for two minutes.

Pierce the pudding with a toothpick and pour half of the sauce over the warm pudding.

Here comes the twist:

• Salted Caramel Sauce- Place the sugar first in the saucepan while making the sauce, allow it to melt and get a bit caramelised. The rest of the ingredients remain the same; just add a pinch of salt and balance as per your liking. This will cut the extra sweetness and still taste delicious.
• Serve the sticky date pudding with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream. Pour the hot caramel sauce on the pudding as well as ice-cream.
• This dessert also goes well with brandy custard (if it’s available in stores near you).
• Go gluten free and replace maida (flour) with gluten-free flour (easily available in Big Bazaar) and add ½ cup of cocoa for a lovely gluten-free cake.
• Add chopped-up raisins and cranberries to replace sugar. And you’ll have sugar-free cake.

Hope you enjoy the sticky date pudding this season.

Photo Credit: Unsplash

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Janice Singh

Janice is a Marketing and Business Development Manager for a Christian International School. She enjoys baking and catching up with friends over hot-chocolate. She also enjoys running and is on the look out for healthy recipes to stay fit to serve God and His people.

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