Rum and Walnut Sticky Toffee Pudding With Salted Caramel Sauce Recipe.

Greetings lovely people!

Welcome back to my recipe blog.

It's been a few weeks since my last blog as I've been busy getting used to my new job. I'm not going to say too much about it now as I am still getting to grips with it but watch this space for developments!

I was going to do a recipe for you a couple of weeks ago. A fantastic traditional British steamed suet pudding called "Sussex pond pudding"which calls for steaming a whole lemon inside a suet crust  but I tried to make it without a proper sized pudding bowl and the results weren't up to my usual standards. It actually came out tasting divine, but looked a mess so it's a recipe I'll be coming back to over the winter as it's a proper "stick to your ribs" winter pudding.

This weeks recipe is also for a good old fashioned British pud, or so you would think!There are many claims to it's origin but, in the grand scheme of things, it's not that old a recipe. The earliest mention of it I could find on the web was from 1907, a veritable young upstart when compared to some of the great traditional British puddings.

Be that as it may, it's fast become a go-to dessert when Autumn turns to Winter and ones body craves a good sweet stodgy pudding to keep the chills out, served with cream, custard or even ice cream it's a delicious belt loosener for the end of a meal and even a lot of people who don't usually do desserts will make an exception for good old sticky toffee pudding!

The recipe I've done for you sticks pretty closely to standard recipes with just a couple of additions, dark rum just because I like a bit of rum in a pud, and its burnt sugar/slight liquorice flavour adds another layer of deliciousness to what is already a fantastic pudding.
I've salted the caramel sauce a little because, basically, I love salted caramel!

I've also added some walnut halves, roughly crushed just between my hands, as I like the woody bitterness they bring to the pudding, as well as a glorious bit of crunch. 

You don't have to add any of these extra ingredients if you're not keen but I do urge you to try the recipe with them in as the finished pudding is just that bit more extra special with them included.

So, lets get on with it then!

Rum and Walnut Sticky Toffee Pudding With Salted Caramel Sauce ( makes about 6 hearty portions or 8 normal portions.)

 

Equipment:

10"x6"x3" deep gratin dish. ( don't use a metal tin as you want the ceramic of the dish to warm up slowly, a metal tin will transfer the heat too quickly and the pudding will be overdone around the edges and not cooked through in the middle.)

Medium saucepan.

Large mixing bowl.

Medium plastic tub.

Wooden spoon.

Standard potato masher. 

Wooden or metal skewer.

Baking tray, large enough to put the gratin dish on.

Ingredients: (for the cake batter.)

175g of stoned dates.
 1 and a half teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda.  

250ml of boiling water.

50ml miniature of dark rum.

60g of butter.

80g of dark muscovado sugar.

80g of caster sugar, or, as I've used, 40g of caster sugar and 40g of  gur shakar ( the Indian raw sugar I've used before in other recipes.)

2 medium eggs, beaten.

175g of plain flour.

1 teaspoon of baking powder.

75g of walnut halves, lightly crushed so you get different sized pieces.

Ingredients: ( for the sauce.)

115g of butter.
 
75g of caster sugar.

40g of dark muscovado sugar.

140ml of double cream.
 half a teaspoon of table salt.  

Method:

First of all, make the sauce.

Put all of the ingredients for the sauce in your medium saucepan and set on a low heat on the stove.

Once all of the ingredients have melted together give them a good old stir and turn up the heat to high. 

Bring to a boil and cook for about 4 minutes, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Add the table salt and have a taste. You should get the rich buttery sweet taste followed by a salty tang right at the end. Don't be tempted to add more salt as its very difficult to bring the sauce back from an over salting! remove from the heat and set aside.

  Put about a third of the sauce in the bottom of the gratin dish and stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes, or the fridge for half an hour, whilst you get on with making the batter for the cake.






 

  

 Put the dates in a plastic tub and pour on the rum. Boil your kettle and add 250ml of boiling water to the dates, along with 1 teaspoon of the bicarbonate of soda. 

Leave the dates to soak while you continue with the rest of the batter mix.

You can now pre heat your oven to 180 degrees c/ gas mask 4.











In your mixing bowl cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.















Then add a little of the beaten eggs. Mix together till smooth, then add a bit more of the eggs. repeat until all of the mixture is combined. ( don't worry if it looks like it's going to split as when you add the flour in the next step it'll all come together.

 


Add the flour, the baking powder and the other half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and mix together well to get a smooth lump free batter.










Your dates should now be softened enough in the boiled water so go in with the potato masher and give them a bit of a mash. You can really go at it if you like to get a smooth puree but I like to leave it a little lumpy so when the pudding is finished you get a nice variation in textures.





 





Add the mashed dates, with the water, to the batter and stir together with the wooden spoon to get a good pourable batter mix.

 Finally, add the crushed walnuts and mix in.















Now, get the gratin dish out of the freezer or fridge and pour the batter on top of the sauce in the bottom. 

Put the gratin dish on the metal baking tray and bake in the bottom of the oven for around 40 minutes, maybe a little less, depending on your oven. The cake should be properly risen all over with the sides coming up a little more than the centre. It should also be golden brown and shiny on top.

Turn the oven off and fire up your grill. 

Pierce the cake all over, right to the bottom, with a skewer, then pour over the remaining sauce from the saucepan. If the sauce has thickened up too much then give it a bit of a warm through on the stove before pouring over the cake.













 

Pop the cake under the grill, just for a couple of minutes. keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn. When the sauce starts gently bubbling remove it from the grill and leave to cool slightly before portioning up and serving.

I've served mine simply with a splosh of double cream, but you can try it with ice cream or custard, whatever you prefer!















There you go then folks, another recipe done! 

Thanks for all your continued support in my blog endeavours, if you have any comments or photos of my recipes you've tried then please share them with me on Twitter @matsdachef, on instagram themat_d or on facebook. I'll try and get another recipe up in a couple of weeks for you.

Until next time then blog buddies,

Happy cooking!

 

Mat.