Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 175g plain flour, sifted
• 300ml boiling water
• 150g soft light brown sugar
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g Medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 200ml double cream
• 150g dark muscovado sugar
• 50g unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C fan. Butter a 20cm square cake tin and line the base with baking paper — the sponge is sticky by design and you want it to turn out cleanly, not weld itself to the tin.
2. Tip the chopped dates into a bowl, pour over the boiling water and stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Leave to stand for 5 minutes — the mixture will turn thick, glossy and syrupy as the dates collapse and soften. This is where the deep toffee flavour starts.
3. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and brown sugar together for 2–3 minutes until pale and slightly fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each so the batter doesn't split. Sift in the flour, baking powder and the fine sea salt and fold through to a smooth, thick batter — don't skip the salt, it's what stops the sponge tasting flatly sweet and lets the dates come through.
4. Stir the soaked dates and all their syrupy liquid into the batter, scrape into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake for 25–30 minutes until the sponge is risen, dark on top and springs back gently when pressed, and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean with no wet batter clinging to it.
5. While the pudding bakes, make the sauce. Put the muscovado sugar, butter and cream into a small saucepan with a small pinch of salt and warm gently over a low heat, stirring, for 4–5 minutes until the sugar has fully dissolved and the sauce is glossy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Stir in the vanilla. Taste it — it should be deep, buttery and balanced, the salt pulling the sweetness into focus rather than letting it cloy. Adjust now, not at the table.
6. Lift the baked pudding from the oven and, while it is still hot, prick the surface all over with a skewer — dozens of holes, right to the base. Pour over two-thirds of the warm toffee sauce and leave it to soak in for a couple of minutes. The sponge will drink it up and turn deeply, almost wet-looking sticky.
7. Cut into generous squares, plate them up and drown each one in the remaining warm toffee sauce, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a jug of cold pouring cream alongside to melt into the puddle.