Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

A delicious and easy recipe. Easy to adapt, try replacing dates with prunes or ginger with lemon rind.


Serves 8


Ingredients:
100 ml boiling water
200 g dates, chopped
1/4 teaspoon baking soda (measure carefully, too much will leave a taste)
50 g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
50 g crystallised ginger, chopped


Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Grease a non-stick 24 cm square or rectangular baking tin.
3. Place dates and baking soda in a bowl, pour over the boiling water, leave to cool.
4. In a separate bowl beat the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup until creamy.
5. Add the eggs, vanilla essence and dates to creamed mixture. 
6. Fold in flour, baking powder and ginger. The mixture will be very wet.
7. Pour into tin and bake for about 30 minutes.
8. Meanwhile prepare the sauce.
9. Check the pudding is cooked by inserting a skewer into the middle, it should come out clean. 
10. Turn out and cut into squares.
11. Serve with hot butterscotch sauce and a dollop of creme fraiche.

Note:

The cooked pudding can be frozen. Thaw before reheating briefly in the microwave.

Butterscotch sauce:


Excellent dessert sauce will keep in the fridge for up to a week. It thickens as it cools, so warm it up in a microwave or over a low heat in a pot to just soften before serving. Try serving with baked or grilled bananas and ice cream.


3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup boiling water
50 g unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup cream

1. Heat sugar in a pot over low heat until it turns deep gold.
2. Carefully pour over boiling water and stir until smooth.
3. Mix in butter and brown sugar, stirring until mixture is smooth and sugar has dissolved.
4. Stir in vanilla and cream.
5. Remove from heat. 

Tip:

If you don't get a nice smooth mixture at step two of the sauce, strain through a sieve and discard any lumps of crystallised sugar. Continue steps 3 - 5.

Rich Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding

Serves: 8

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 2 hours, using high and low



Ingredients

3 cups self-raising flour

1/4 cup cocoa

100 grams butter, chilled and diced

1 cup sugar

2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla essence



Chocolate sauce

3 1/2 cups boiling water

1/2 cup dark rum or coffee liqueur

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa
Method
Turn the slow cooker on to low to pre-warm while gathering and preparing the ingredients.

Sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre.

Beat the milk, eggs and vanilla essence together and mix into the dry ingredients using a holed spoon to form a stiff batter.

Into the pre-warmed slow cooker, put the boiling water, rum or coffee liqueur, sugar and cocoa and stir to dissolve the cocoa.

Carefully spoon the batter evenly into the slow cooker and cover with the lid.

Cook on high for 1 hour then turn to low for a further 1 hour.

Serve hot with ice cream and cream.



Allyson's tip

The alcohol will have cooked out of the rum or liqueur, however, use only water for an alcohol-free recipe.