Irish sticky toffee pudding

A moist date pudding with Dutch-process cocoa and Baileys, finished with a salty toffee sauce. Serves 6.

Ingredients

• Pudding: 125 g butter
• 150 g light muscovado sugar
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup
• 1 tablespoon black treacle
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 150 g self-raising flour
• 60 g Dutch-process cocoa
• 150 g Medjool dates, chopped
• 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 100 ml Baileys Irish Cream
• 180 ml water
• vanilla ice cream, for serving
• Toffee sauce: 100 g unsalted butter
• 150 g dark muscovado sugar
• 3 tablespoons golden syrup
• 150 ml double cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• a generous pinch of sea salt

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160 °C (140 °C fan). Grease a 20 cm round ovenproof dish.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in the golden syrup, treacle, eggs and vanilla, slowly, on low speed.
4. Sift the self-raising flour and cocoa together, then fold into the mixture on low speed.
5. Simmer the 180 ml water with the chopped dates for a few minutes, take off the heat, then stir in the Baileys and the bicarbonate of soda — it will foam up.
6. Fold the hot date-Baileys mixture into the flour-cocoa batter, pour into the prepared dish, and bake 45–50 minutes, until firm and slightly springy. Check with a skewer for a few moist crumbs rather than judging by colour — the batter is dark.
7. For the sauce: melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup until the sugar dissolves. Add the cream, vanilla and salt, and simmer 3 minutes until thickened. For extra Irish flavour, stir 1–2 tablespoons of Baileys into the sauce off the heat at the end (optional — the alcohol will not cook off once the sauce is off the heat).
8. Drizzle the toffee sauce over the warm pudding and serve with vanilla ice cream.

The Baileys goes in after the date-water simmer, off the heat — prolonged boiling would drive off the alcohol and mute the cream-liqueur taste.

The water is 100 ml less than the original recipe (180 ml instead of 280 ml), matching the Baileys added so the batter hydration — and the bake time — stay the same.