Pudding Pixie makes the first pudding of the year - Sticky Toffee Pudding

I know, it's not Masterchef, it's a picture of a pudding on a plate, but boy, what a yummy first pudding of the year.  I've always been a big fan of Sticky Toffee puddings (STP) but this one was great, .....if i do say so myself! lol
Sometimes STP's can be overly sweet and sticky and sickly, but I was pleasantly surprised at how this turned out.  My husband bought me a book last year by Gregg Wallace, that lovely guy from Masterchef who loves puddings, and I kept looking through it and putting markers in the pages but never got around to starting to bake anything, so this is the first and here it is.
A lovely light sponge with dates in it and a simple toffee sauce made with cream, butter and sugar.  Is your mouth watering yet?

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 75g dates, stoned and chopped
• 75g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 50g light brown soft sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (although I used vanilla paste) 
• 140g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder 

FOR THE SAUCE

• 150ml double cream
• 75g light brown soft sugar
• 25g butter

Prep 15 mins

Cook 30 mins

1. Put the dates in a small saucepan and pour over 75ml water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 3-4 mins until the dates are mushy and have absorbed the water. Use a blender to blend the mix or a hand held food processor.  Put mix aside and leave to cool.
2. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the bases of 4 x 150ml pudding moulds. In a large bowl put the butter and sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and baking powder and blend with an electric whisk until the mix is blended. Fold in the blended date purée and divide between the moulds. Transfer to a roasting tin and pour enough boiling water in to reach halfway up the moulds. Cover the tin with foil and cook for 25 mins until risen and firm to the touch.
3. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Pour half the cream and all the sugar and butter into a small, heavy-bottomed pan. Heat gently until sugar has dissolved, stirring often. Turn up the heat and bubble for 3-4 mins until the sauce is glossy and thick, be careful here to not burn the sauce (as I did the first time!!) then stir in the remaining cream. Re-heat the sauce when the puddings are cooked and serve poured on top.

PER SERVING

716 kcalories, protein 8g, carbohydrate 73g, fat 46 g, saturated fat 26g, fibre 2g, sugar 46g, salt 1.1 g

These puddings are individual servings and can be frozen, I would recommend that the sauce is made fresh at the time of pudding consumption.  I made 8 puddings at the time and gave 4 to my parents to scoff, we ate two on Sun (8th Jan) and I refrigerated the other 2 for eating this week (they've all gone now!)

If you need to re-heat the puddings, I put them in the microwave on high for approx 25 secs (850W microwave), the same with my sauce, a quick nuke to warm it back up again, oh i'm soo gourmet! ha ha ha (or you can reheat in the pan I suppose, but carefully to ensure you don't burn the mix)