FLOWER POT KITCHEN: RICH STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING THE BEST EVER

20 Jun 2014

RICH STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING THE BEST EVER

Wow Wow Wow so simple and so quick to make this is the best rich sticky toffee pudding with a rich creamy buttery sticky toffee sauce I have ever made, loaded with pureed dates for extra moisture this is a truly sumptuous pudding, the fact that I was making my French sophisticated tart au citron for fathers day and got rail roaded by watching James Martin's best bites from Saturday kitchen on Sunday morning, ended up with me making this easy and simple pudding that is outstandingly good along with the choice of thick double cream, custard, clotted cream or ice cream was a deal sealer!

INGREDIENTS

(makes 6)

55g butter

170g demerara sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

2 eggs

2 tbsp black treacle

200g self raising flour

200g pitted dates

290ml boiling water

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the sauce

220ml double cream

110g butter

110g dark muscovado sugar

3 tbsp black treacle

2 tbsp golden syrup

To serve, suggestions

Vanilla Ice-Cream

Clotted cream

Custard

Thick double cream

Pre-heat your oven to 200c/Gas 6, take 8 small pudding moulds and grease with butter. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, add the golden syrup, treacle, and eggs, beat smooth on a slow setting, add the flour and gently fold in and leave to one side.

Meanwhile add the dates to a food processor, add the boiling water to the blender and blend to a smooth puree, tip into a bowl and add the bicarbonate of soda and vanilla.

Add the date mixture to the pudding mixture and fold in evenly. Three quarter fill your greased moulds and place in your oven to bake for 15-20 minutes until the centre is springy to touch.

To make the sauce place all of the ingredients in a pan and bring up to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally until the sugar is absorbed. This will give you the most awesome sticky toffee sauce.

To serve remove the puddings from the moulds, place each pudding on a plate and pour over the sticky toffee sauce and serve with your choice of accompaniment. My husband choose three, clotted cream, thick double cream and vanilla cream!!!

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.