Dessert · England
Sticky toffee pudding
A date sponge soaked in toffee sauce.
About the dish
Sticky toffee pudding is a British dessert, and in Britain pudding means dessert in general as well as steamed and baked sponges like this one. It became widely popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and the Lake District in the north of England is the region most associated with it, though several places claim to have invented it.
The sponge is made with chopped dates soaked in boiling water with baking soda, which softens the dates so they melt into the batter and darkens the crumb. They are folded into a batter of butter, brown sugar, eggs and flour, and the pudding is baked until springy.
The sauce is simple: butter, dark brown sugar and cream boiled together into a glossy toffee. Many cooks prick the warm sponge and pour some sauce over it so it soaks in, then serve more at the table, with custard, cream or vanilla ice cream. The flavor is deeply sweet and rich, with a slightly bitter, molasses edge from the dark sugar, and a pinch of salt in the sauce keeps it from cloying.
Written from general cooking knowledge, as background on a dish from the game’s recipe book. It is not a tested recipe.
The flavors it leans on
Sticky toffee pudding in Night Kitchen
In the game, Sticky toffee pudding is a dessert in the recipe book. A plate is named Sticky toffee pudding when it holds these cards and is cooked with exactly these techniques, with at most one extra ingredient.
Ingredients
- Dates
- Flour
- Butter
Techniques
- Bake
- Caramelize
How those cards taste
Cooked from just these cards for an average ticket, before tonight’s mood and quirks, it would please Theo (2 stars) and Gus (2 stars) most.
“A date cake drowned in toffee. The only dessert I will admit to.”
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