Sticky Toffee Pudding with a Toffee Sauce
A trip to Grange-Over-Sands and Cartmel, the home of Sticky Toffee Pudding.
A Trip to Grange Over Sands - April 2024
Recipe - Sticky Toffee and Date Pudding
A Trip to Grange-Over-Sands
In April 2024, I spent a few days with family in Grange-Over-Sands, Cumbria. It’s a two-hour drive from where I live, taking the scenic route via Bradford and Keighley along the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the Forest of Bowland National Landscape.
Our original intention was to spend a few hours in Kirby Lonsdale, but we decided to drive straight to Grange-Over Sands on the other side of Morecambe Bay, where we planned to stay the night and explore the town.
Apart from delicious bakeries, coffee shops, craft shops and Charity shops, Grange-Over-Sands has a wonderful promenade sandwiched between the rail track and the Sandbanks, Marshes and mud flats of Morecambe Bay.
We stayed at The Netherwood Hotel and Spa, where the meal that evening was some of the best I have eaten in a long time. Sea Bass with a mix of stir-fried vegetables and coconut sauce, followed by, you’ve guessed it, Sticky Toffee Pudding.
The following day, we drove a few miles to Cartmel, which was said to be the home of sticky toffee pudding.
‘The original and the best, this rich, gooey, heavenly, pudding was lovingly created in the kitchen of Cartmel Village Shop and is now shipped all over the world and sold everywhere’1
This area, including Kirby Lonsdale, which we also called in on the way home, is well worth visiting and has some lovely walks.
Sticky Toffee and Date Pudding with a Toffee Sauce.
Ingredients
For the Toffee and Date Pudding
200 g pitted dates, roughly chopped
250 ml freshly brewed Tea
100 g unsalted butter, softened
175 g soft light brown sugar
3 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
225 g self raising flour
3/4 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
Toffee Sauce
90 g butter
185 g dark brown sugar
210 g golden syrup
175 g double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
TIP: Using Soft Dark Brown sugar will give the pudding and the sauce a richer, darker colour and more intense toffee flavour.
Instructions
Make the Toffee and Date Pudding
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan-assisted. Grease an 8-inch deep-sided ovenproof dish with butter.
Step 1: Place the chopped dates and brewed tea in a saucepan over high heat and gently bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for a few minutes to soften the dates, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and leave to one side to cool.
Step 2: Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until well combined and lighter in colour. Add the eggs, one at a time, adding a little flour after each one. Mix until well combined.
Step 3: Sieve together the remaining flour and bicarbonate of soda before adding to the cake batter. Add the vanilla extract and the cooled date mixture. Mix until well combined.
Step 4: Pour the sponge mixture into the buttered oven-proof dish and bake for 35 – 40 mins or until baked, testing the centre of the sponge with a skewer until it comes out clean. Remove the sponge from the oven to cool.
Make the Toffee Sauce
While the pudding is baking, make the Toffee Sauce.
Step 5: Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan and gently bring to a boil for 2 – 3 mins; continue stirring until it has begun to thicken.
Note: It will thicken further as it cools and sets when placed in the fridge.
Serve: When the sponge has cooled, you could pour half of the sauce over it and serve the Toffee Pudding with ice cream and more sauce or serve it separately.
Storage
This pudding will keep for a few days if stored in an airtight container. The Toffee Sauce recipe can easily be doubled.
As always, Happy Baking.
Lynn x
Cartmel.org. Things to see and do.