Go to the Recipe: Sticky Toffee Pudding
This is INSANELY good. I've never had or made this dish before. The flavor is totally unique. I enjoy dates very much, but this doesn't taste like dates. It's got its own, really awesome flavor profile. I definitely recommend making extra toffee sauce to go over top. I scaled up this sauce, then used the one from Fallow's YouTube channel.
In rooting through my cupboard I found a bag of dried plums I had forgotten about and thought of trying this recipe substituting the plums for the dates. I'm sure they were less sweet than the Medjool dates but I made no other substitutions or additions to compensate. The resulting cake was perfectly dense and moist. Creme fraiche and salting the top were the final touches. Great last minute addition to our Christmas meal Thanks again for a great recipe.
I stayed at Sharrow Bay in the mid-1980s, and I remember the entire room they had devoted to their amazing desserts! That couple was wonderful, and Coulson was a marvelous chef.
So, I meticulously weighed all ingredients and followed the recipe (including allowing the date mixture to cool to 120 degrees F before adding to the vanilla-sugar-egg mixture. After adding the flour-mix (which I sifted) I too had batter that was very liquid...not gelatinous at all. I ended up adding approx. 1-2 cups of additional flower to improve the consistency of the batter...just trying to get it close to what Chefsteps shows in the recipe. I had extra batter so made some cup-cakes. I have a steam-bake option on our oven and elected to use that function. It took FOREVER (~3hrs) to reach the 180 degree F internal temp. I was very happy with the results...the flavor was fantastic, moist but more "cake" than "pudding". The good news is the cake could absorb more of the whisky sauce. I made the cake a day in advance (Incl sauce and flake salt) and left it out overnight, uncovered, and covered it the next morning after it had cooled...reheated it in the oven and was still really moist. The flake salt was a fantastic touch.
I would reach for honey in place before brown sugar.
I am going to make this recipe in the next day or so for the first time. I appreciate all the comments posted…especially reinforcing to use weight measurements vs volumes. I am a big fan of Chef Steps so this was the first place I looked for a recipe. I have since seen a couple recipes that seem to use molasses and dark corn syrup and even soaking of the dates in hot brewed coffee. I read something that if you don’t have either molasses or dark corn syrup tha you can simply add more brown sugar to the recipe to make up for this. Thoughts?
I have made this 4 times over the past few years. 3 times just as the recipe stated and the batter was too liquidy and the texture of the cake was slightly gummy. Decreasing the water to 600g, an amount closer to the Ultimate sticky toffee pudding recipe on the BBC website the batter appeared much closer to the pictured batter above. For what it's worth...
Do you guys think this will work out if I make two batches at the same time? That is doubling up the ingredients I mean.
Thanks!
My friend's favorite dessert and he said this was one of the best versions he had ever had! Salt is essential (used Malden Smoke Sea Salt). Served with an '01 Ch. Suduiraut.
Batter was more liquid than the video, as others have noted, but didn't seem to be a problem. Turned off the fan, but still cracked. Maybe drop the temp 25°F next time? Wonder if some steam would help?
Did you just double the topping recipe and add pecans? Please share, I am making this on Wed!!! Thanks
With extra toffee top
I would say 2 weeks would be great. just make sure its wrapped well.
Its almost Christmas and my friends are in other state. So I was thinking if it is possible to ship the pudding? Any idea on shelf life and such?
Last year, I used this recipe as jumping off point for Christmas pudding. I used the same weight of a mixture of dried fruit (including medjool dates), steamed one in a traditional pudding mold, then cooked several others sous vide in Weck jars. I did them at 82°C for an hour or so (checked the internal temp to make sure they were done). Leave space in the jars as the batter will expand.
Do you think this can be a sous vide dessert? Put into mason jars?
The first time I had sticky toffee pudding I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was on Islay -- a small island that time forgot -- and the hostess at the hotel seemed amazed that I had never had it before. They steamed theirs -- the old traditional way. Since then I have tried to recreate that steamed pudding which was dense and, well, pudding-y not cake like. Does anyone have suggestions about how to convert a recipe for a baked toffee pudding to a steamed one? Timing seems to be the issue.
This made me so happy.
Isn't wikipedia neat?
A rule of thumb : when the batter is composed almost exclusively of fat and CBHO =>> you can count 580 kcal for 100 g and you are very close to the truth.
the ingredients call for 260g butter, divided, more to grease pan. The direction say to add the butter to the sugar and salt (and vanilla, if using) in a stand mixture, but do not say how much of that divided amount to use. Later in the directions, toffee calls for adding the "remaining butter" to brown sugar and whipping cream. Again, no amount specified. Can someone enlighten me?
Sticky Toffee Pudding, a popular steamed dessert, combines dates, a rich toffee sauce and custard or cream. Despite the many claims and counter-claims, the original Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe is thought to have been produced by Francis Coulson at Sharrow Bay in the Lake District in the 1970s.
Only thing I’d say about this is extra toffee has to be poured over the top when it’s served. Sticky toffee pudding should be drenched in toffee so it’s, you know, sticky
It's a lot.
Has anyone had the time to calculate the nutritional value ? Carbs& fat ( max )& overall calories to be able to add this to a food plan ?
My batter has been thinner at times and like the video at other times. I weigh everything but have never weighed the eggs. Perhaps this is what affects the consistency of the batter. Next time I'll weigh the eggs. Regardless, this has always come out well.
Great recipe! I love adding cinnamon, ginger, pepper and nutmeg to mine.
We made this at Christmas and again this evening
We used dried apricots instead of the dates and it is awesome
just made this for women's day for the wife.
so. so. so. good.
may as well be dessert day.
Oh, it's brilliant- and damn clever to have a cake dessert on cool where you can microwave a serving and add cold cream or warm custard.
PS it's the first time making a ChefSteps cake that was not too sweet
I did this cake for the second time today and I scaled the ingredients both times. My mixture was very watery the first go round too, but the second time was just like the video. The only difference is I allowed my date mixture to cool to 115° this time, instead of adding it in at 130° the first time (I wanted a denser fudgier cake). For me it was definitely letting it cool that made a difference.
Thanks Eric. I was wondering if a vegan version was possible. Will try it now.
For anyone who is curious about making this recipe dairy free, it works amazingly well! I made this recipe for a holiday party and everyone was scrambling to get a piece. I replaced the butter with a mixture of vegetable shortening and coconut oil. For the heavy cream in the toffee, I used full fat coconut milk. The toffee was the only part that did not come out as I would have liked because some of the solids seemed to separate out. However, because it was just used to soak the cake, no one could tell and the flavor was amazing. I finished each slice with some black flake sea salt (necessary to counter the sweetness). I will definitely be trying this recipe again but as others have mentioned, I will likely add in a different dried fruit in addition to the dates.
I ended up spacing and putting the full amount of butter in this and luckily it didn't ruin it. Its sooo good, rich, dense and moist as I drenched it in the toffee sauce. Reminded me of a rum cake, but just a ton better and from scratch. Will make this again as the family loved it for Christmas desert!
Wow! This is excellent. The salt flakes adds a nice surprise. Next tine, i do think I will slightly reduce both salt and sugar in the batter. But a great taste experience.
This is a great recipe, came out perfect. My dinner guests were impressed. Served with whip cream laced with dark rum and vanilla. I weighed everything, even the water - 825 grams water was less than 3.5 cups. Perhaps that's where people who had very wet batter went wrong. I forgot to sprinkle the salt on the cake, and I am glad, because the cake was a bit salty as it was. I think that's because of all the baking powder and baking soda in the recipe. I will make it again, but cut the salt in half. I was not watching the cake, and when checking the internal temp it was 190, quickly poked the holes (I did about 120 with a fat kabob skewer, not thin toothpicks) and poured the toffee over. Moved it to a cool part of the house and let it sit over night - not covered. And my cake was much higher than in the pictures and video, and it did not deflate at all. So for people who had too moist and defeated cakes - I suggest to weigh everything, do not volume measure, and cook to 190. Oh, I did use the bleached cake flour as instructed, not all purpose flour, and I parchment lined the bottom plus the sides of my springform pan.
What did you do about the whipping cream in the toffee?
Do you think this could be frozen for a month or so?
Just tried. I: veganised" it with coconut oil and replace eggs with gel from flax-seed meal. moist, fluffy and light. will make it for the holiday.
Thank you for that. Reducing sugar in a cake batter can be problematic, so it is good to hear that this substantial reduction worked for you.
Just made this for the first time and it came out great. It's crazy addictive. I had extra batter, enough to fill 6 cupcake tins. I left them in for 30 minutes and the cake for 50 minutes. I reduced the sugar from 180g to 100g and it's plenty sweet for me and came out very fluffy.
@Alex Were you able to make this dairy free? Anyone else have experience making this dairy free? Thanks
I'd like to try making individual servings in ramekins... in that case would you recommend using a bain marie?
Can we substitute the butter for coconut oil - a client is dairy free.
I made this twice and the second one was very nice. (The prunes I used for the first one had gone a little sour. Having nothing else on hand, I used them anyway but the result wasn't very nice.) However, the pudding was very, very dense and far too moist. It rose alright in the oven but it sank together while going to room temperature. There was no "crumb" but only a dense mass of dough. I know it's supposed to be moist, but it didn't look like in the video or pictures at all.
Now, somehow the dough didn't seem as airy as in the demo. I was using a hand mixer but I don't think that's the problem. My guess is that the culprit is the flour. In Germany (as in all the EU) bleaching is illegal for flours so I can only get my hand on unbleached "type 405" flour which also has a slightly higher protein content (about 9%) than American cake flour. Is that a plausible cause for the dense cake? Oh, I used a mixture of dates and apricots (about 50/50).
I did some research but it seems impossible to get my hands on bleached flour. Is there any way to adapt the recipe to get a more airy, less dense result?
Great to hear, Damian!
This was amazing! Made is yesterday and took it to a friends dinner party! It went down very well.
