TV chef Nigella Lawson has shared her recipe for a delicious sticky toffee pudding – and it’s ready in less than hour.
Sharing the recipe with BBC Food, Nigella wrote: “My STP is altogether deeper and darker than the original version: it is still sweet, but the muscovado sugar and black treacle give it an almost savage intensity.
“It seems redolent of ginger, cloves, allspice – and yet none of these spices are used. It’s a miracle. I don’t understand it – but then, miracles are not to be questioned.”
This delicious dessert is the perfect choice for hosting guests this Christmas season, and will certainly leave them impressed.
And after serving if you have any left, Nigella says that if you take a slab of it cut from the dish tastes like the most “magnificent sticky gingerbread.”
Nigella Lawson’s sticky toffee pudding
Ingredients
For the sponge
- 200g/7oz soft dried pitted dates, roughly chopped
- 200ml/7fl oz water from a freshly boiled kettle
- One tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 75g/2½oz unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing
- 2 tbsp black treacle
- 50g/1¾oz dark muscovado sugar
- Two large free-range eggs, kept at room temperature
- 150g/5½oz plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
For the sauce
- 150g/5½oz unsalted butter, softened
- 300g/10½oz dark muscovado sugar
- One tbsp black treacle
- 200ml/7fl oz double cream, plus more to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and lightly grease a 23x23cm/9x9in square baking dish.
Pour the chopped dates, boiling water, and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and mix together. Then leave for ten minutes.
Cream the butter and black treacle together in a stand mixer until well mixed, then add the sugar and continue mixing until there are no more lumps. Beat in one of the eggs until fully mixed in and then repeat with the second egg.
Then add in the flour and baking powder and gently beat until you have a smooth, thick batter.
Stir the dates soaked dates, squishing them a bit and then pour into the batter and beat gently to mix in. Pour the mixture into the greased baking dish and bake for 30–35 minutes.
Meanwhile, start making the sauce by melting the butter, muscovado sugar and treacle over a very low heat in a heavy-based saucepan, and once the butter is melted stir gently until everything else is too.
Then stir in the cream and turn up the heat until it’s bubbling and hot, then remove from the heat.
Once the sponge has been removed from the oven, prick all over with a cocktail stick and pour about a quarter of the warm sauce over, spreading to the edges with a spatula so that the sponge is entirely covered with a thick sticky glaze.
Put a lid on the remaining sauce in the pan to keep it warm. Leave the sponge to stand for 20-30 minutes, then slice and serve with the rest of the sauce and some ice cream.
