TEMPERATURE FOR TOFFEE RECIPES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and lightly grease your dish.
• Put the chopped dates, boiling water and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl, stir and then leave for 10 minutes.
• Cream the butter and black treacle together in a stand mixer until well mixed, then add the sugar and mix again, beating out any lumps. Beat in an egg and keep beating – scraping down as necessary – until completely incorporated, then do the same with the other egg. Beating more gently, add the flour and baking powder until you have a smooth, thick batter.
• Using a fork, stir the soaked dates, squishing them a bit, then pour the dates and their liquid into the batter and beat gently to mix in.
• Pour and scrape into your prepared dish or cake tin and bake for 30–35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
• Meanwhile, to make the sauce, melt the butter, muscovado sugar and treacle over a very low heat in a heavy-based saucepan. Once the butter’s melted, stir gently until everything else is melted too. Now stir in the cream, then turn up the heat and when it’s bubbling and hot, take it off the heat.
• As soon as it’s out of the oven, prick the cooked sponge pudding all over with a cocktail stick and pour about a quarter of the warm sauce over, easing it to the edges with a spatula so that the sponge is entirely topped with a thick sticky glaze. Put a lid on the remaining sauce in the pan to keep it warm.
• Leave the pudding to stand for 20–30 minutes, then take to the table, with the rest of the sauce in a jug, and cream to serve.

Steps:

• Put the dates in a mixing bowl with the water. Leave for 30 minutes until cool, then mash with a fork to a rough pulp. Stir through the vanilla and set aside. Butter a 1.2 litre ovenproof dish and set aside. Heat the oven to 170°C/fan150°C/gas 3.
• While the dates are soaking, use an electric mixer or wooden spoon to beat the 90g butter and 150g sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well before adding the next. Beat in the black treacle, then mix the flour with the bicarb and gently fold in one third using a metal spoon or balloon whisk. Fold in a third of the milk, then repeat until all the flour and milk are used up. Stir the soaked dates, with their liquid, into the batter – it may curdle, but don’t worry. Spoon into the prepared dish.
• Bake for 50 minutes or until the pudding is risen and firm, and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean (cover with foil after 40 minutes if the edges are browning too much). If the skewer comes out with what looks like uncooked mixture on it, it might be a piece of date. Taste it – if you can taste uncooked flour it will need longer.
• Meanwhile, make the toffee sauce. Put the 225g sugar, brandy, 100g butter and half the cream in a large, heavy-based pan and heat gently. When the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat, stir in the treacle and bubble, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until the mix is a rich toffee colour. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the rest of the cream. Keep warm.
• Leave the pudding to cool for 20 minutes, then skewer it all over and pour over half the sauce. Leave for another 15 minutes, then serve drizzled with the rest of the sauce, with ourhttps://delidev.wpengine.com/recipes/toasted-nut-and-demerara-ice-cream/ > toasted nut and demerara ice cream, if you like.