Author Topic: Sticky Toffee Pudding  (Read 3787 times)

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Sticky Toffee Pudding
« on: 03 January, 2021, 08:23:50 pm »
This evening, I made sticky toffee pudding. I'd recently acquired a jar of Cartmel sticky toffee sauce so it seemed like a good excuse to use it.

After trawling the internet for recipes, I settled on version 2 from this page - not least because it seemed very easy:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/feb/17/recipes.foodanddrink
(Instead of making two quantities of sauce, I replaced the second 'extra sauce' quantity with the stuff from the jar. The one I made myself was much nicer, of course. Only other difference was that I used dark muscovado instead of molasses sugar, because that's what we had in the cupboard. Recipe says it serves 6 but I don't think you'd go hungry if you stretched it to 8 portions.)

I've never been a huge fan of STP - too often in my experience it is heavy, stodgy, claggy and unbearably sweet. But this was an absolute revelation. The real surprise was just how astonishingly light the sponge turned out. And although it was incredibly rich, it didn't actually taste too sweet. Maybe it's just that I've never had a good STP before today (even though I did once stay at Sharrow Bay).

I had thought of making some vanilla ice cream to go with it but that seemed like too much effort, so I just whipped up the cream instead and placed a dollop on top of the pud.

Consider me an STP convert.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #1 on: 03 January, 2021, 08:32:35 pm »
I like STP but partner Does Not Like Dates so we live without...

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #2 on: 03 January, 2021, 08:34:48 pm »
I like STP but partner Does Not Like Dates so we live without...

Shame! I'm not a huge fan of dates myself, but you can't really taste them in the pud - or at least not distinctly. They mainly add texture and sweetness, I think.

Very good source of dietary fibre, of course.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #3 on: 03 January, 2021, 09:44:56 pm »
I make the best STP. Our first internet page (which we had in those days) had a STP rating page.  Would have to dig out my recipe but doesn't seem too far away from those.

Important things to note from a one time self styled STP aficionado:
1. Ginger sponge covered in toffee sauce is NOT STP.
2. You need to heat the sponge up in the oven while it's enrobed in the sauce, so that the sponge absorbs sauce. Hot sponge with hot sauce poured on the top is shit.
3. No fucking custard. Ice cream or cream if you wish.

That is all. The trash heap has spoken, ner.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #4 on: 03 January, 2021, 10:25:43 pm »
I make the best STP. Our first internet page (which we had in those days) had a STP rating page.  Would have to dig out my recipe but doesn't seem too far away from those.

Important things to note from a one time self styled STP aficionado:
1. Ginger sponge covered in toffee sauce is NOT STP.
2. You need to heat the sponge up in the oven while it's enrobed in the sauce, so that the sponge absorbs sauce. Hot sponge with hot sauce poured on the top is shit.
3. No fucking custard. Ice cream or cream if you wish.

That is all. The trash heap has spoken, ner.

I am totally on board with all three points! I did consider making custard to go with it but thought better of it. Cream is good, but a dollop of good vanilla ice cream (English style, not ‘gelato’) would be the ideal accompaniment for me.

I might try Felicity Cloake’s version next time - although I’m not convinced it needs the addition of nuts:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/apr/14/cook-perfect-sticky-toffee-pudding

She complains that Simon Hopkinson‘s version loses the texture of the dates, but he does say in his recipe not to over-blitz them. (I used a stick blender and only whizzed it until the ingredients were well mixed, not totally puréed.)
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #5 on: 03 January, 2021, 10:59:07 pm »
I will dig out my recipe tomorrow. There is no blending of dates required though, they just seem to disintegrate quite nicely on their own. :P
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #6 on: 05 January, 2021, 08:44:02 pm »
I make my STP with date paste, which is a great time saver! I don't know where to buy this in the UK, but I would be very surprised if it cannot be found somewhere.

I will not claim that my STP is the best in the world, but judging by the short time it takes to finish the last bit, it is probably not bad!

A

ian

Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #7 on: 05 January, 2021, 09:09:51 pm »
I realised that as I ate a mini Christmas pud the other day that I don't eat puddings or deserts and given this year*, the last pudding I ate was the same kind of festively fruity micro-bolus in late 2019.

I don't think I've had a sticky toffee pudding since school. I didn't even know it featured dates. I thought it was just a swiss roll with toffee poured over and then incarcerated in proper British custard.

*very occasionally I have dessert in restaurants, but I'm mostly the person who eats all the bread and asks for more bread before he starts. And don't get me going on restaurants that don't supply bread. And it should be free. Many murders have been justified by lesser crimes. This is one thing the French hold over us. Fresh, free bread.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #8 on: 05 January, 2021, 09:26:51 pm »
INGREDIENTS

6 oz dates, half a pint of water
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2oz butter
6 ozs caster sugar
2 eggs
6oz self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Grease 7" square cake tin. Pour 1/2 pint water over the dates and bring to the boil then remove pan from heat. Add bicarb and leave to stand. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs a little at a time and beat well. Carefully fold in flour. Then stir in the dates with the liquid and ½ teaspoon vanilla essence. Pour into tin and bake in centre of oven @ 180C for 30-40 minutes.

SAUCE
2 oz soft brown sugar
4 tablespoons double cream
2.25 oz butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
(This is about a third of the original amounts but assumes you don't want to eat the whole thing at once, so scale it back up if you do!)

Mix the sugar cream, butter and vanilla essence together in a pan. Bring to the boil then simmer for 3 mins. Pour a little of the sauce over the cooked pudding then put it back into the oven for a few minutes to allow sauce to soak in & bubble. Shove in face.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

ian

Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #9 on: 05 January, 2021, 09:30:13 pm »
Are you sure you can't just melt Caramac bars over a swiss roll?

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #10 on: 05 January, 2021, 09:30:54 pm »
Burn the heretic!
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

ian

Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #11 on: 05 January, 2021, 09:34:18 pm »
It's true. I forgot the Birds custard.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #12 on: 05 January, 2021, 09:35:38 pm »
I had a rather nice STP in the company of Keith & Ann Benton at The Golden Lion in Northallerton.

I suppose that's 14 months ago.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #13 on: 06 January, 2021, 09:47:39 am »
INGREDIENTS...

Thanks. That looks very similar to the 'original' version.

One question: do you put the dates in whole or chop them?
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #14 on: 06 January, 2021, 10:04:44 am »
Dates=prunes with hair in.

I'm not a fan of STP. Why bother. I'd rather have a treacle pudding, if you're going to eat sticky, eat sticky.

ian

Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #15 on: 06 January, 2021, 10:10:15 am »
I think I may be muddling my puddings. Are treacle puddings the one that comes in cans that you're supposed to boil forever with dire warnings that if they explode they'll take out an entire city block? I like my puddings with a bit of risk. A genuine unexploded bombe, that sort of thing.

Those were a lovely part of my childhood. Golden syrup puds too. You always risk third-degree mouth burns, of course, as the syrup/treacle component was the same temperature as molten magma.

I don't think I ever understood that puddings could exist independent of their cans.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #16 on: 06 January, 2021, 12:54:36 pm »
INGREDIENTS...

Thanks. That looks very similar to the 'original' version.

One question: do you put the dates in whole or chop them?

I think in the days I used to make this I used those dates that come compressed into a brick (think the size of a packet of butter, do they even exist anymore?) so they needed a bit of picking apart/prodding/muddling
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
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Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #17 on: 06 January, 2021, 12:56:42 pm »
@ian canned syrup sponge is wrong.
That's what pressure cookers are for. Having said that, the one time I made it I decided my mum never put enough syrup in, so I used a metric fuckton and then ate half the pudding in one sitting. Then spent the next hour climbing the walls and grinding my teeth...
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #18 on: 06 January, 2021, 01:26:08 pm »
According to the Guardian articles I referenced earlier, treacle sponge is a classic English steamed pudding while STP is originally from Leftpondia and is more like what they call a muffin in texture.

Steamed puddings can be a bit heavy in my experience, but that's probably down to how they're cooked. I'm vaguely aware of the canned versions but not sure I've ever had one. The STP I made the other day was surprisingly light.

I think both have their place.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #19 on: 06 January, 2021, 01:26:35 pm »
INGREDIENTS

6 oz dates, half a pint of water
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2oz butter
6 ozs caster sugar
2 eggs
6oz self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Grease 7" square cake tin. Pour 1/2 pint water over the dates and bring to the boil then remove pan from heat. Add bicarb and leave to stand. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs a little at a time and beat well. Carefully fold in flour. Then stir in the dates with the liquid and ½ teaspoon vanilla essence. Pour into tin and bake in centre of oven @ 180C for 30-40 minutes.

SAUCE
2 oz soft brown sugar
4 tablespoons double cream
2.25 oz butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
(This is about a third of the original amounts but assumes you don't want to eat the whole thing at once, so scale it back up if you do!)

Mix the sugar cream, butter and vanilla essence together in a pan. Bring to the boil then simmer for 3 mins. Pour a little of the sauce over the cooked pudding then put it back into the oven for a few minutes to allow sauce to soak in & bubble. Shove in face.

Now I need a wheeze to bring this to MrsT's attention so that she can make one surreptitiously for my birthday (upcoming), this idea being that if I don't know she's making it I can say "I'm really not supposed to eat this, but since you've made it..." with a clear conscience.  I just hope the weather will be suitable for doing a sufficient number of km after to use up the carb load.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ian

Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #20 on: 06 January, 2021, 01:54:42 pm »
According to the Guardian articles I referenced earlier, treacle sponge is a classic English steamed pudding while STP is originally from Leftpondia and is more like what they call a muffin in texture.

Steamed puddings can be a bit heavy in my experience, but that's probably down to how they're cooked. I'm vaguely aware of the canned versions but not sure I've ever had one. The STP I made the other day was surprisingly light.

I think both have their place.

We always used to have a can of sponge pudding in the cupboard when I was growing up. It was only ever consumed on very special occasions and it was partitioned the usual way: my dad got half, I got a quarter and my sister got a quarter. My mother has rarely ever eaten. This was always the grand disappointment of that other canned glory of my childhood, the Fray Bentos pie. The paltry quarter, if that, my dad's share took half the remaining filling too. It was, at least, better than my mother's meat and potato pie in which the meat was basically undissolved lumps of bisto.

Anyway, I mostly ate pudding at school. I can't remember the details, I think there was a lot of Manchester tart (if I recall, pasty smeared with raspberry jam under an adipose layer of cold congealed custard and sprinkled with that recognized signature of Manchester, a dandruff of desiccated coconut. Possibly random fruit crumbles in which the race was to get crumbly crumble – not the second sitting smush.

Bananas in custard. I think bananas in custard was main dessert I ever had at home. Until the time my mum was chased by a tarantula, after that bananas were off the menu, and we resorted to Angel Delight, a dessert option never knowingly threatened by the appearance of large spiders.

I don't especially like sweet things, they make me a bit sick and cranky. Even when I have dessert, a few spoons in, I'm mostly starting to regret it. I once ate a giant ice cream in Chicago, and it came back up fifteen minutes later as I walked down the street. Trying to stop a very public barf, I clamped my mouth shut so it took the path of least resistance and came out of my nose. I was like a human ice cream truck. Could have filled two cornets simultaneously. If I could have rotated my head three-hundred and sixty degrees, I could have been a Dairy Queen Linda Blair.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #21 on: 06 January, 2021, 02:28:28 pm »
Having been brought up in Kent, the bane of my life school dinners wise was gypsy tart. I only discovered later in life that this was a local delicacy, and people who grew up outside Kent were mostly spared this monstrosity. I think the filling is basically a mixture of molasses and evaporated milk.  :sick:
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #22 on: 06 January, 2021, 06:04:43 pm »
I think I may be muddling my puddings. Are treacle puddings the one that comes in cans that you're supposed to boil forever with dire warnings that if they explode they'll take out an entire city block? I like my puddings with a bit of risk. A genuine unexploded bombe, that sort of thing.

Those were a lovely part of my childhood. Golden syrup puds too. You always risk third-degree mouth burns, of course, as the syrup/treacle component was the same temperature as molten magma.

I don't think I ever understood that puddings could exist independent of their cans.

Syrup sponge came in a can from Sainsbury's until they were discontinued.

I warmed them quickly and safely in the microwave after opening the tin at both ends, as per the instructions.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #23 on: 06 January, 2021, 06:06:30 pm »
INGREDIENTS...

Thanks. That looks very similar to the 'original' version.

One question: do you put the dates in whole or chop them?

I think in the days I used to make this I used those dates that come compressed into a brick (think the size of a packet of butter, do they even exist anymore?) so they needed a bit of picking apart/prodding/muddling

Date bricks still exist but I eschew as Partner Dislikes.

Ruthie

  • Her Majester
Re: Sticky Toffee Pudding
« Reply #24 on: 06 January, 2021, 06:07:43 pm »
They sell golden syrup puddings in the shop across the road from my home.
Milk please, no sugar.