Sticky Toffee Pudding!
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Gorgeous, rich and delightful homemade sticky toffee pudding with homemade sticky toffee sauce and served with ice cream!
Sticky toffee pudding
I realise it’s now the end of October, but as the weather is cold and cosy I wanted to post a warming pudding that is going to satisfy my sweet cravings, and is utterly scrumptious and delicious. That basically only calls for one thing… sticky toffee pudding.
For this, think sweet, but not teeth achingly sweet. It’s warm, it’s cosy and it’s heaven in every singly morsel. One major thing I must say about this recipe though? You will want more than one bowlful. I will be honest and say that sticky toffee pudding is my favourite pudding in the world, so I am so excited to post this recipe.
Classic puddings
I feel like this is one of those puddings that is on nearly every single pub menu, and you can get pretty much all year, even when its the peak of summer, and I am not mad about it. It’s a classic, that you can’t beat. However, making it at home means it’s cheaper, and you get more for your money. You can add more sauce, or less sauce, or whatever you really fancy. It is EPIC.
I often find with desserts that I buy when I am out at a pub or a restaurant, that there is never enough sauce. I might actually just be that person who loves an obscene amount of sauce, but hey ho… I love it. I might be mad for that, but I know I am not alone. There is something wonderful about having the warm pudding, the warm sauce, and the ice cold ice cream. Or even just a drizzle of double cream, or anything!
The pudding
There are so many recipes for sticky toffee pudding out there that I kind of merged a few together and then also what I had in the fridge/cupboard and what I found worked best! However, dates MUST be used, in my opinion.
Obviously though, dates aren’t to everyones tastes so you can leave them out, up the milk to 250ml, and add in 25g more treacle, but it won’t be quite as good. My sticky toffee cake recipe is super popular, but that definitely requires the dates.
- Butter – the butter for the pudding can be a block butter, or baking spread
- Sugar – I prefer to use dark brown soft sugar for a proper sticky toffee flavour, but light brown sugar works well as well
- Flour – I use self raising flour when making this pudding
- Raising agents – A little bit of baking powder and bicarb
- Treacle – black treacle is important again for the proper sticky toffee flavour, but can be substituted for golden syrup
- Eggs – I use medium eggs in my baking, but two large would work well for this
- Milk – I always use full-fat whole milk in my bakes for best results
The sauce
The sauce is arguably one of the most important bits right as I said above?! I just can’t get enough of it, and I want it slathered all over the pudding as well as poured on after… it’s perfect.
- Butter – whilst you can use bakings spread for the sponge, I’d recommend actual butter for the sauce to prevent splitting
- Sugar – I’d use the same as you used for the sponge, I use dark brown soft sugar though
- Treacle – again, I prefer black treacle for a rich flavour, but golden syrup works well
- Cream – double/heavy cream is best, single cream or low fat won’t work in the same way
- Vanilla – I love to add a little sweetness, but this is optional
Best served with…
My favourite flavours of ice cream to go with a dessert like this are clotted cream ice cream, and toffee ice cream – but maybe that’s a little too much sticky toffee in one go? Or, if you have a giant glug of custard, I’m not going to be mad about it…
You can obviously use whatever ice cream you fancy, or its particularly fun when you make this for a dinner party and buy several different flavours of ice cream – the face of each guest when they cant decide which flavour to have. And of course, you can use shop bought custard, or make your own… whatever you prefer.
Tips & Tricks
- This is best served fresh, but will last 3+ days in the fridge
- The pudding can be made in advance and frozen
- The sauce can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for 3+ days
- You can reheat the pudding once if you have leftovers
- I use a 30x20cm size dish, but anything roughly similar works well
Sticky Toffee Pudding!
Ingredients
Sticky Toffee Pudding
- 175 g dates (stones removed)
- 175 ml boiling water
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 175 g light or dark brown soft sugar
- 250 g self raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 75 g black treacle (or golden syrup)
- 3 medium eggs
- 125 ml whole milk
Sticky Toffee Sauce
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 75 g light or dark brown soft sugar
- 2 tbsp black treacle (or golden syrup)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150 ml double cream
Instructions
For the Pudding
- Remove the stones from your dates, and chop as finely as possible.
- Pour over the boiling water and leave the mixture to sit for 20 minutes or so. If you prefer no lumps, blend the mixture until smooth.
- Preheat your oven to 180ºC/160ºC Fan, and get a baking dish ready - I use one that is about 1.5L in size (30x20cm ish)
- Add the unsalted butter, sugar, eggs, self raising flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and the black treacle into a bowl, and beat until combined - beat as little as possible so as not to over beat it.
- Add in the date & water mixture, and the milk a little at a time, and mix in until smooth. It'll be a thin mixture, but roll with it!
- Pour the mixture into the dish and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Whilst baking, make the sauce!
For the Sauce
- Add all your ingredients to a larger pan, and heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved and the butter has melted and incorporated.
- Bring the sauce to the boil and stir for 1-2 minutes so it thickens slightly.
- Pour half or most of the sauce over the baked pudding.
- Serve with a drizzle of cream, whipped cream, or ice cream like I did and any leftover sauce!
Notes
- Any dish that is about 1.5-2L in size will work - just keep an eye on the baking time.
- The dessert is best served fresh, but can be reheated once.
- The sauce will last for 3 days, in the fridge - will thicken a lot in the fridge.
- If you want to bake individual puddings, I recommend using these pudding moulds for the recipe! The recipe will make about 8-10 and take 20 minutes to bake!
- If you don't want to use the dates, remove the dates and water and use 250ml milk in total.
Enjoy!
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Absolutely love this recipe! This year, I’m making it for Christmas again, but im trying to keep it sugar free (so my kids can have some this time)…I usually bake using dates puree instead of sugar for them…so basically I would be doubling the amount of date puree and taking out the sugar…so would I need to add a little extra flour, so its not too runny?
Love this recipe and it’s the wife’s favourite. If she’s out dining and gets sticky toffee pudding, she’s always disappointed as it’s not as good as the one I make using your recipe. When I do make it, I put half in cling film and wrap that in foil, then freeze it. That’s what I’ll do this week when I make it again. The other half? That’ll be for Christmas Day. Thank you for this recipe. It’s amazing.
Hi Dave.
If you are freezing this would you freeze it with the sauce over the pudding or do you add the sauce once is has defrosted ?
Thanks
Maxine
300ml plus a bit off for reduction… 250ml
Hi, the recipe looks amazing and I’m hoping to try it out soon!
I do have a clarifying question about the ingredients…
I don’t have self raising flour and was going to make my own with AP flour, salt and baking powder. A quick Google search told me that my ratio for 2 cups of flour would be: 250g AP flour, 3 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt.
I see that the recipe calls for 1tsp of baking powder in addition to the self raising flour. In my instance, that would total 4tsp baking powder (3 tsp for my own self raising flour and an extra 1tsp based on the recipe).
I just wanted to clarify if this would be correct? I don’t want to mess up the ratios!
Thanks so much 🙂
Perfect as a date cake served alone! Light, moist & fluffy!
I am thinking of adding chopped walnuts & spreading a simple glazed icing on top to serve for tea.
Thank you for an incredible recipe!
I’ve never reviewed a recipe before, but OMG this turned out perfect?? I made this as I had some dates to use up, and was so excited to try making something new and I’m so glad I did! Will definitely be making this again, I really love that there’s a YouTube video as well as this really helps to follow instructions. Won’t be able to order one at pub/restaurant now as it just won’t compare! Thank you Jane! 🫶🏻
So easy to make and soo good. One of the best cakes I’ve made.
Amazing recipe! Would this work if doubled or is it safer to make two separate puddings?
I multiplied everything by 1.5 to serve 12 and it worked perfectly.
I’ve never reviewed a recipe before but I had to for this. I made this for my wife, who is a self proclaimed sticky pud connoisseur, and she absolutely loved it. Better than any we’ve had in a restaurant. Fair play Jane.
Okay this recipe was delicious ! My family absolutely loved it. I like my sauce to have a bit more saltiness to it so I added a pinch more of salt and it was perfect! Not to mention how incredibly easy it was to make. Thank you so much!
Hi Jane, I am making this ahead of time and leaving in the fridge. What temperature and for how long should I reheat it for in the oven? (I don’t have a microwave) Thanks, can’t wait to eat it! x
Hi Jane, is it ok to use margarine instead of unsalted butter in both the cake & sauce or maybe just the cake?
Thanks ☺️
The cake is fine, but not the sauce! X
I NEVER order sticky toffee pudding from a pub – I think this is because the one time I did (about 20 years ago), it had lumps in which put me right off! I now realise that these lumps were dates! So, I decided to try this for a family get together as one of our desserts. I chose to use Golden Syrup rather than Treacle, simply because I prefer syrup to treacle. Well, wow. What a recipe this is. I have an issue with lumps and so I understand why the dates may make some nervous. I promise, if you follow Jane’s recipe (watch the video first too), whizzing them up means you have no clue that they are in there. The taste and texture of this pudding was just divine. Even my dad was very complimentary and has just messaged me after eating more that was leftover! We had it with vanilla ice-cream but next time, I am going to have it with custard as I know that will be just as good. Another brilliant recipe from Jane, thank you 🙂
I perhaps should have added that I used the Mason Cash Lasagne Dish (which measures H 7.3cm x W 31.5cm x D 20.5cm with a capacity of 2.5 litres) – I wanted one like Jane’s but couldn’t find one! I did have to bake it longer, approximately 15-20 minutes. I just kept an eye, like I would a cake and took it out when my (Mason Cash Stainless Steel) Cake Tester came out clean.
Hi, Jane
I made this today and it was delicious! I couldn’t get hold of any treacle or golden syrup (rural France), and trying to work out which would be the best equivalent was like rocket science , so I used a local honey instead and a light brown sugar. It didn’t taste any different to what we’ve had in the past in the UK, just looked more ‘blonde’ than ‘brunette’!
I used a 20cm x 26cm dish and it was the perfect size. Baked at 160 fan for 40 minutes.
Hi I’m going to make this and then freeze for Xmas Day,
Would you cut into individual slices then freeze of freeze whole?
Also what’s the best way to reheat
Thanks
I always cut some squares ,stack high and microwave until warmed well Dust the stack down with icing sugar and carry a double quantity sauce to the table saying “ ta da!!!” As you present to the gathering! 😂
I always slice mine into serving size slices, wrap them separately in cling film and then freeze them individually. Then, when they are frozen put them into a proper freezer bag. Works for me
Hi I was thinking of baking this in a 2 litre baking dish. It is about 21x25cm in length. Would this still be suitable for the pudding or would I need to adjust the baking time
Would love to try this recipe but cannot get medium eggs, pls can you let me know how many large eggs I would need, or gram liquid measure for large eggs as replacement would be most helpful…thanks
It doesn’t really matter! I used large eggs and my turned out really nice!