English Sticky Toffee Pudding

It was a regular Wednesday night, 9 pm to be exact, and I settled down on my couch (with my blankie of course)  to watch Masterchef. A friend had asked me earlier if I had seen everyone's reactions to Gordon Ramsay's sticky toffee pudding. I eagerly awaited the scene and you can see for yourself their reactions HERE.  I knew that I HAD to try the recipe, and the rest is history.

Words cannot even describe how I feel about this recipe. This cake is so darn delicious that I've made it on four separate occasions this past month. In fact, I think it might even tie with cheesecake as my favorite dessert. This cake will change your life.








I was surprised to learn that the cake has dates in it, which is what the brown stuff on my cutting board is. In the recipe you mix the roughly chopped dates with the baking soda & boiling water, and this causes the dates to soften and disintegrate. It resembled a date soup!

The easiest place to mess up making the cake is the finicky toffee. First, when you're cooking the toffee make sure that your flame is on low-medium heat. You want to watch and stir your sauce constantly until it becomes a medium brown color.  Once it reaches your desired color, take it off the heat and pour on top of your cake. My new oven actually has a broiler setting (YES!) but I'm pretty sure just sticking it in the oven for the toffee to become bubbly should do the trick. You stick the cake back in the oven for LESS than a minute AND WATCH IT THE ENTIRE TIME. Toffee/caramel burns just like that (insert me snapping my fingers) so you really need to watch it doesn't burn. I made that mistake the first time...

Your end product should be a super moist cake with a flaky, crunchy crust. The toffee should form a shell on the outside of the cake so you can hear it crunch when you cut into it. I would suggest eating right when it comes out of the oven, but otherwise just serve warm with a quenelle of ice cream.

English Sticky Toffee Pudding

Recipe modified from Marie Simmons's original posting.

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup pitted dates
1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

Vanilla Ice Cream (optional)

TOFFEE SAUCE:
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch round or square baking dish. 

2. In a bowl of electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla; beat until blended. Gradually beat in the flour and baking powder mixture.  ( If your flour and baking powder are lumpy sift before adding. 

3.  Roughly chop your dates & place in a small bowl. To your dates add the boiling water and baking soda; set aside. 

4. Add the warm-temperature date mixture to the batter and fold until blended with a rubber spatula. Pour into the prepared baking dish. 

5. Bake until pudding is set and firm on top, about 35 minutes. Remove from oven to a wire rack.

Toffee Sauce: 

1. Combine the butter, heavy cream and brown sugar in a small heavy saucepan; heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil gently over medium low heat until mixture is thickened, about 8 minutes. 

2. Preheat broiler. Spoon toffee sauce over the pudding and spread evenly on top. Place pudding under the broiler until the topping is bubbly, about 1 minute. Serve immediately spooned into dessert bowls. Drizzle with toffee sauce and top with a spoonful of of ice cream.

Creamy Garlic Alfredo with Broccoli, Parsley, and Fresh Roma Tomatoes

I had some leftover heavy cream from a cake that I made, and not having any other use for it, I decided to make alfredo for the first time! Alfredo takes less than ten minutes to make and you can start your pasta at the same time you get your sauce going. Making the alfredo was thankfully quick, and it had all the creamy, cheesy goodness you want from your classic sauce. 

Because alfredo is not the healthiest thing in the world, I decided to saute some veggies in the pan to add into my sauce. I used the same pan to cook my veggies, make the sauce, and combine all the ingredients together! I even served my alfredo straight out of the pan because I'm not a fan of doing dishes. Plus I conserved water and time, so no one's complaining :)

While making my alfredo I noticed that my cheese and sauce starting to separate so I quickly put in on low heat and stirred constantly so the ingredients melded together. The reason my ingredients started to separate was because I wasn't continuously whisking, so whisk your alfredo is my advice to you! Other than than my almost-going-to-be-a-problem, I had no other issues and found the recipe straightforward. 

Also if you want to make a this recipe gluten-free friendly just swap out the pasta for whatever gluten-free kind you prefer. I just chose penne because I already had a bag open!

Creamy Garlic Alfredo with Broccoli, Parsley, and Fresh Roma Tomatoes

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com & makes four servings. 

2 cups penne 

5 tablespoons butter

1 cup heavy cream

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 monterey jack cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 cup chopped broccoli

1 roma tomato, diced

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the penne pasta and cook until tender, 8-10 minutes.  Strain water from pot of pasta to stop the pasta from cooking further. 

2.  Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Place broccoli in the skillet and cooked until cooked through. Stir in the diced roma tomato and cook for an additional minute. Remove from heat and place in a separate bowl. 

3. In the clean skillet melt remaining butter over medium low heat. Add the cream and simmer for 5 minutes. Then add garlic and cheese and whisk quickly until heated through. Remove from heat and stir in parsley, broccoli, & tomato. 

See how easy this was? You can mix up your cheese and add whatever toppings you want (bacon sounds delicious).  Hope your alfredo experience was as fast and filling as mine :) Also, I didn't add a whole tbsp of butter to cook my broccoli so just use as much as you need!