Paul Hollywood's 'Sticky Toffee Pudding'

My first attempt at a Sticky Toffee Pudding....

Over the course of the next year, I've decided to try making things that I've never made before (making use of some of the cookbooks I was given for Christmas). This gave me the idea to post how my cook book trials work out on the blog! My very first attempt was the Sticky Toffee Pudding in Paul Hollywood's 'Pies and Puds' (a book that I had on my Christmas list!)

I've only made one or two tweaks with the recipe, switching from the listed dates to sweetened cranberries but that s just over personal preference. I think any dried fruit would work! I also missed out the macadamia nuts as they aren't something available in our house but kept them in the recipe in case anyone would like to include them.

  

• 175g/6oz stoned dates, chopped
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 75g/2½oz unsalted butter, softened
• 150g/5½oz soft dark brown sugar
• 2 medium free-range eggs, beaten
• 175g/6oz self-raising flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp fudge pieces
• 75g/2½oz macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
• ice cream or cream, to serve

For the toffee sauce you'll need:

• 100g/3½oz unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 150g/5½oz soft dark brown sugar
• 150ml/5fl oz double cream

•  Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Put your dried fruit of choice in a bowl and pour over 200ml of boiling water. Stir in bicarbonate of soda and leave.
• Cream the sugar and butter together until fluffy, then slowly add beaten egg.
• Sift in flour and baking powder into the mixture together and fold.
• Add the fruit WITH the boiling water (don't worry about the runny texture this gives the mixture- its meant to do it!)
• Fold in fudge pieces and nuts (if you are including them).
• Pour into a lined cake tin and place in oven for around 30-40 minutes.
• While cake is nearing the end of its bake start making up the sauce, you do this by melting the butter and sugar together, then pour in the cream- I like to add a few drops of vanilla essence too!
• Next is the bit I found the trickiest, boiling the sauce for a certain amount of time for it to be thick enough- no matter how long I boiled it for, it never seemed to get thick enough. Once it had cooled down completely it thickened a lot but you're supposed to serve the sauce warm so that was what I did.

It's quite a rich dessert so I ate it with cream. I was really pleased with how this turned out! It was a relatively easy dessert to make and it came out really sweet and moist. It turned out so well that I made it again the following weekend for my grandparents who were very happy to take the role of taste testers! I'd really reccomend thisrecipe- Hollywood knows his stuff!