Sticky Date Pudding is the way Australians refer to he British Sticky Toffee Pudding. Regardless of the name, it is an amazingly delicious dessert. It is served everywhere in Australia, from top restaurants (in more or less revised versions) to the local pubs.
I would say it is probably the most common dessert in Australia. I had never eaten it before moving to Sydney, but I immediately fell in love with it. What’s not to like in a soft, spongy, airy, date pudding smothered in a thick and dark butterscotch sauce?? Comfort food at its best.
Surprisingly enough, it’s not hard to make at home. There are tons of recipes out there, but the one I will share with you is particularly good as the pudding is steamed in the oven. This method makes it much more spongy and moist and it helps the butterscotch to get absorbed really well.
Try it and let me know how you like it! Enjoy!
Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce
Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce - pure comfort food.
Ingredients
Date Pudding
- 180 gms – 6 1/3 oz. dates pitted and roughly chopped
- 310 ml – 1 ¼ cups water
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 165 gms - ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 60 gms – ¼ cup butter softened and chopped
- 2 eggs
- 150 gms – 1 cup self-raising flour sifted
Butterscotch Sauce
- 50 gms – 3 ½ tbsp butter
- 220 gms – 1 cup brown sugar
- 250 ml – 1 cup cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Date Pudding
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Put the dates and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over a high heat. Remove from the heat. Add the bicarbonate of soda and stir until the dates start to break down. Keep aside to cool, stirring occasionally.
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Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl using a hand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until light and fluffy.
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Add the date mixture and stir to combine. Then carefully fold through the sifted flour.
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Divide the mixture evenly between the eight moulds until 2/3 full.
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Place the moulds in a baking tray, carefully pour some water in the tray until it comes up to 1/3 of the side of the moulds.
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Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C – 355°F (160°C – 320°F fan-forced) for 40 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Butterscotch Sauce
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Combine the butter, sugar, cream and vanilla in a small saucepan and cook it over low heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
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Bring the sauce to a boil, reduce the heat and cook for 5-6 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly.
Serving
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To serve, invert the hot pudding onto a serving plate and top with the butterscotch sauce.
Recipe Notes
You can also serve this pudding with vanilla ice cream or a dollop of double cream.
I love sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce. It’s so sweet and I don’t care. 🙂 Yours look amazingly good.
I think this is the exact recipe that Disney uses on their cruise ships. I’m not exactly sure of the measurements but the items are exactly the same.
The amount of dates differs from the list of ingredients to the instructions , so I used the latter. Turned out good, but a little dense. It looked nothing like the picture. I always reduce the amount of sugar as its always way too sweet for us. Overall they tasted very good but they were not light and fluffy which was a little disappointing.
Hi Pat. I have fixed the instructions to be more clear. Thanks for letting me know. I am not sure if the reduced amount of sugar in the batter could affect the texture of the final cake… it’s either that or maybe the temperature of your oven was a bit too high, so they didn’t steam properly. Maybe next time, try to reduce the sugar in the butterscotch instead of the one of the cake, the final result will still be less sweet, but the cake’s texture won’t be compromised. 🙂
Hi Manu
What size moulds did you use and how much liquid do they hold?. I only have a large muffin tray which are a lot shorter in depth. If I use them should I decrease the cook time?
hello manuela
do you by any chance have the origanal recipe from masterdhef please for the sticky date pudding?
thank you
Hi! Can I use milk instead of cream??
Hi Marjolaine
I haven’t tried it but I don’t see why not. 🙂 Keep in mind though that the texture will not be the same, it will be less “creamy”.
The sauce turned out perfectly. It’s great to find one that is easy to make so thank you. I didn’t find the sauce too sweet but I added salt as I like that flavour. I have made the cakes before but not as puddings (eg I didn’t have the tray of water) and they were still lovely. They froze and defrosted very well too. I’ll try the steaming method next.
I get annoyed by people who alter a blogger’s recipe eg reducing the sugar and then complain that what they cooked didn’t turn out how the picture looked. Each ingredient and each amount is there for a reason.
Hi Sandra! THANK YOU so much for taking the time to write this comment! I love this recipe too – it’s actually my husband’s favourite dessert, so I am really really happy that you liked it too! <3
I absolutely agree, if a recipe is altered it will turn into something else. Also, I find that desserts (and especially cakes) are very hard to successfully modify. 🙂
I forgot my rating!
when I made this cake the flour was very lumpy in the mix, even though i sifted the flour. do you know why this happened and how to prevent it from happening again?
Can this be made in advance
Hello,
I’m dying to try this! With the restrictions in place I don’t have self raising flour. Do you know what I would need to add to plain flour to make it rise (baking powder I assume, but not sure how much). Don’t worry if you don’t know, just thought I’d ask as I’d love to try this and don’t know when I’ll get another shopping run in.
Hi! You can add 2 teaspoons of baking powder per 1 cup of all-purpose flour to turn it into self-raising. I know what you mean, it is hard. Even when I get to go to the shops, I can barely find any kind of flour at the moment. 🙁 Let me know how you like these and stay safe!