As much as I love a sticky toffee pudding made with just dates, I like mine to be a little more festive and a little more spiced. So I developed this Xmas spiced version. It isn’t drastically different from its straightforward sibling, but it is definitely much tastier.
ingredients
- 100g dried, pitted dates
- 100g dried figs
- 55g dried apricots
- 250ml boiling Lady Grey tea (made from water and 1 tea bag)
- 100ml whole milk
- 60g butter
- 125g dark brown muscovado sugar
- 130g golden caster sugar
- 2 Large eggs
- seeds of 1 vanilla pod, or 1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
- 1 tsp bicarb of soda
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 310g self raising flour
(for the topping)
- 225g butter
- 310g dark brown muscovado sugar
- 200ml whipping cream
method
- Preheat the oven to 175C/160C fan, and grease a pyrex or other roasting dish of about 35 x 20 cm.
- In a food processor place the fruits, tea and milk, and blitz into a viscous mass. Place this into a mixing bowl, ensuring that you scrape every last drop out of the processor with a spatula.
- Now into the processor place the remaining ingredients and blitz into a thick, almost completely dry, mix. Add the tea-fruit mass and blitz again into a thick pudding batter.
- Place in the greased dish and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- For the toffee sauce, place the ingredients into a pan and heat over a medium-high heat stirring, until all is melted and amalgamated together.
- When the pudding is baked, allow to cool completely then pour over the toffee sauce. This can now be kept in the fridge, covered, for up to three days, or until you are ready to eat it. When this time comes, preheat the oven to the same temperature and bake in the oven for 35 minutes, or until the toffee sauce in the centre is bubbling. Serve with vanilla ice cream or pouring cream.
