flipSticky toffee pudding
Sticky toffee pudding
Why this dish? This moist date pudding with its caramel sauce was born in the north of England. For a filmmaker who films domestic tenderness and ageing couples like in *45 Years*, this nostalgic dessert embodies the sweetness of shared late evenings.
A spongy date cake, drowned in warm buttery caramel sauce. The British comfort dessert, served steaming with a dollop of cream.
There's something comforting about a pudding that arrives at the table still hot, the sauce running over the edges. Sticky toffee is the dessert you keep for evenings when you need a bit of sweetness — and sometimes you do. The dates, you melt them in hot water until they almost disappear, and that's what makes the cake so moist. Serve it with a cloud of cream, no fuss. It's the kind of dish that doesn't try to impress, just to console.
- •Pitted dates — a good handful (moist base)
- •Flour — for the batter (structure)
- •Butter, brown sugar — as needed (cake and sauce)
- •Eggs — a few (binder)
- •Cream, black treacle — as needed (toffee sauce)
Sticky toffee pudding
A spongy date cake, drowned in warm buttery caramel sauce. The British comfort dessert, served steaming with a dollop of cream.
Why this dish? This moist date pudding with its caramel sauce was born in the north of England. For a filmmaker who films domestic tenderness and ageing couples like in *45 Years*, this nostalgic dessert embodies the sweetness of shared late evenings.
There's something comforting about a pudding that arrives at the table still hot, the sauce running over the edges. Sticky toffee is the dessert you keep for evenings when you need a bit of sweetness — and sometimes you do. The dates, you melt them in hot water until they almost disappear, and that's what makes the cake so moist. Serve it with a cloud of cream, no fuss. It's the kind of dish that doesn't try to impress, just to console.
Ingredients (period version)
- Pitted dates — a good handful (moist base)
- Flour — for the batter (structure)
- Butter, brown sugar — as needed (cake and sauce)
- Eggs — a few (binder)
- Cream, black treacle — as needed (toffee sauce)
Ingredients
- Pitted dates — 200 g (moist base)
- Flour — 175 g (structure)
- Butter — 150 g (cake and sauce)
- Brown sugar (muscovado) — 200 g (cake and sauce)
- Eggs — 2 (binder)
- Bicarbonate of soda — 1 tsp (leavening)
- Double cream — 150 ml (toffee sauce)
Method
- Soak dates in 200 ml boiling water with bicarbonate; let soften 10 min then puree.
- Cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs then flour, finally date puree.
- Pour into a buttered tin and bake at 180°C for about 30-35 min until firm.
- For the sauce: melt butter, brown sugar and cream over low heat until smooth caramel.
- Pour hot sauce over the warm pudding, serve immediately with a spoonful of cream or vanilla ice cream.
How it was made : Sticky toffee pudding became popular in the 1970s thanks to the Sharrow Bay Hotel in the Lake District, though its exact origins are debated. It belongs to the great British tradition of steamed or baked puddings, a legacy of the hearty desserts of the Victorian era.
The contemporary twist : A pinch of sea salt on the caramel and a dash of black coffee to cut the sweetness: the 'moody' version worthy of a film's final shot.
Andrew Haigh · Charactorium
