PrintHave you ever made Sticky Toffee Pudding?
Even the name Sticky Toffee Pudding assures me this would be a super-sweet-only-able-to-eat-a-small-portion-dessert! Mmm...I'd like to give it a try complete with the Sticky Toffee Sauce & a scoop of vanilla Haagen-Dazs. I've looked at recipes online...Epicurious & Food & Wine...but wanted to ask my SE buddies...anyone attempt STP? Any hints for assuring a perfect pudding? Have you eaten one at a restaurant?
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18 Comments:
One of the best desserts in St. Louis is the Tap Room's STP. Here's the website with the recipe. The chef tells me that the sauce gets better as it cooks down during the day.
http://www.schlafly.com/taproom.recipes.shtml
No ice cream, just a cloud of softly whipped unsweetened cream.
lemons at 8:05PM on 02/12/08
When I was a kid, my Mum used to make it. We would eat it either just plain with the sauce (Mum used to make hazelnut or walnut toffee sauce) or with good vanilla ice-cream. Truth be told, it wasn't even my favourite dessert growing up (I did love the ice cream and the sauce part though), but what wouldn't I do now to have a spoonful of Mum's sticky toffee pudding:-). Hmm, sorry, I'm not being helpful here...but do try adding chopped hazelnuts to the toffee sauce, like I said, this was always my favourite part!
brooke29 at 8:36PM on 02/12/08
Thanks for the link, lemons. That is one rich sounding recipe! I'd like to cut the recipe down to fewer servings or else I'd have a stomach-ache for sure!
JEP at 8:41PM on 02/12/08
JEP, take a look at this one (by Richard E Grant from Taste of My Life):
Preparation time less than 30 mins
Cooking time 30 mins to 1 hour
Serves 6
Ingredients
For the pudding
150g/5oz dates, stones removed, chopped
250ml/9fl oz hot water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g/2¼ oz butter, softened
60g/2¼ oz caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
150g/5oz self-raising flour
For the toffee sauce
200g/7oz butter
400g/14oz brown sugar
vanilla pod, split
250ml/9fl oz double cream
(I still recommend adding some chopped hazelnuts to the sauce:-))
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/370F/Gas 4.
2. Mix the dates, bicarbonate of soda and the water together in a bowl and leave to soak for ten minutes.
3. In a clean bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
4. Still stirring the butter mixture, gradually add the eggs, making sure they are well mixed in.
5. Still stirring, gradually add the flour, then add the date mixture.
6. Pour the mixture into a 20cm/8in square cake tin. Place into the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cooked through.
7. To make the sauce, melt the butter in a thick bottomed pan over a medium heat.
8. Add the brown sugar, vanilla pod and cream and stir well. Simmer for five minutes.
9. To serve, spoon out a portion of the pudding onto a plate and pour over the hot toffee sauce.
brooke29 at 9:35PM on 02/12/08
The cake freezes very well, and so does the sauce; I speak from experience.
lemons at 11:59PM on 02/12/08
brooke29--thanks for taking the time to write out your recipe! I am on a mission to make a STP!
At Fresh Market I noticed a few individual portioned puddings in the freezer section by "The Sticky Toffee Pudding Co"--of course they have STP but also a chocolate molten cake & lemon pudding. Anyone ever eat one of these?
JEP at 5:40AM on 02/13/08
I made this one and it was easy to make and yummy if very sweet. The sauce is a bit tricky (I always have issued with caramel-like sauces, if anyone knows a trick about how not to mess these up please share!). Vanilla ice cream is a must. And it does indeed freeze well.
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10973
cristi at 9:35AM on 02/13/08
If you're in a bind and just craving STP, as I do...I buy the Haagan Daaz STP ice cream! Yum!
jcrisco at 9:58AM on 02/13/08
This is my favorite. The bittersweet chocolate tempers the sweetness.
Sticky Toffee Pudding with Chocolate Chips & Toffee Sauce (from Sydney chef Andrew Blake, in 'The Best American Recipes 2003-2004')
SAUCE
6 oz. dark brown sugar [I use Muscovado]
4 oz. butter
1/2 c. heavy cream
PUDDING
6 oz. pitted dates
3/4 c. boiling water
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3 oz. butter
4 oz. dark brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
6 oz. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. coffee essence
7 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
350º, deep 9” cake pan buttered and lined with parchment
Stir sauce ingredients over medium heat until sugar melts and sauce bubbles. Pour half into the cake pan and keep the rest to serve with the pudding.
Put dates and baking powder in a small bowl and add boiling water. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Beat in eggs a bit at a time, sprinkling in 1 Tbsp of flour when half the eggs are in (to stop curdling). Mix in dates and water. Sift over flour and baking powder and fold in gently. Stir in coffee and chocolate. Pour into cake pan and bake 50-60 minutes, until the top is golden and firm and the sides have shrunk a bit from the pan. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before turning out.
To serve: Heat sauce to bubbling and spoon over wedges of warm pudding. Add a dollop of crème fraîche.
Cathy at 3:16PM on 02/13/08
cristi & Cathy---thanks for the recipes, both sound pretty darn good!
jcrisco--maybe I could top the warm STP with a scoop of the HD instead of plain vanilla:)
Still curious about those frozen single servings made by the "Sticky Toffee Pudding Co"....
JEP at 5:57PM on 02/13/08
I love "sticky toffee pudding" ice cream by HD and so when I was given the task of doing dessert for Cristmas this year, I so did not want to do the usual pies, cookie bars, jello whatevers of years past, so I was determined to do something new, something that I thought others would enjoy, but probably wouldn't try because they would think they wouldn't like it. I was a nervous wreck, family and friends were a little crestfallen that there were no pies, but they were kind enough to try it and they alll LOVED it. You know it's a hit when they are asking how to make it. The key was serving it warm (the pudding and the sauce) and also letting the sauce cook down for a couple of hours. It became richer and more toffee like the longer it cooked. Smoother. I served it with vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche.
I got a great deal of satisfaction making this - My first time presenting my mom and sisters with a new dish, made from scratch and not a dish they have ever made. (I am the youngest of three daughters, so it's a biggie for me!) My two sons and husband loved it and that was the icing on top of the cake. Or the toffee on top of the pudding! I got my recipe off of Epicurious.
radley24 at 7:19PM on 02/13/08
Love this dessert! I've tried a few recipes and the best I've found is from The Sweet Life, by Kate Zuckerman, pastry chef at Chanterelle. Hope you get a chance to try it!
butterface at 8:25PM on 02/13/08
Now I am in trouble. I love Sticky Toffee Pudding (never had it before moving to Canada, now I crave it!) and will have to make it soon. Maybe the one with chocolate...mmmmmph. I agree that the ice cream is a reasonable substitute, especially in warmer weather.
wellred at 9:17PM on 02/13/08
I did forget to add that it was really rich, so a small serving went a long way, but it was pleasing to many senses, that's for sure!
radley24 at 10:14PM on 02/13/08
Believe it or not this was a common dessert in my Nebraska school lunch as a child, musta had date surplus. Always served warm with the carmel topping and it never disappoints, I make it often when I have left over dates from the holidays.
Nourishment at 2:20AM on 02/14/08
I've only had sticky toffee pudding once. My friend, an expat, worked as a pastry chef and made it one day. It was delicious, my husband still talks about it (and it was years ago). I do remember it was super sweet. I think I'll surprise my husband and make the recipe with chocolate that Cathy posted. Thanks!
wookie at 8:34PM on 02/15/08
I bake mine in muffin pans. Slide the 'muffins' into small freezeer bags to freeze and zap in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up when it's time to enjoy it. It freeezes beautifully and somehow the preportioned serving sizes slow me down from consuming the entire batch in a weekend.
kathyvegas at 8:56PM on 02/15/08
kathyvegas---thanks for the portioning tip--sounds like the way to go for us single-serving needs people.
JEP at 9:16PM on 02/15/08