Sticky Date Pudding

This delightful pudding has been around for decades, and for good reason. It's the ultimate comfort food! This Sticky Date Pudding recipe will help you easily create this much-loved dessert: perfectly soft, sweet pudding and a rich, smooth butterscotch sauce.

Sticky Date Pudding, also called Sticky Toffee Pudding, never goes out of fashion and is especially popular through the winter months. It's a perfect winter warmer and will sweeten up the gloomiest of days.

The recipe originated in the UK in the 1960s, and reached peak popularity here in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s. Over those decades, I may have over-indulged, enjoying it at many cafes around the Hunter Valley and Sydney. But my favourite version was always my Mum's.

Jump to:

• The perfect recipe
• Ingredient notes
• How to make Sticky Date Pudding
• Serving and storage
• More pudding recipes
• Sticky Date Pudding

The perfect recipe

This recipe is from my mum's secret stash which she acquired during her many years working as a pastry cook in country bakeries. It's been tested many, many times – in both commercial and home kitchens.

I've kept true to this original recipe as it just can't be improved. However, I've tweaked the cooking time a little to suit the recommended tins and you'll find clearer step-by-step instructions (with some pictures) in the recipe card at the end of this post. So keep scrolling!

Ingredient notes

To make the pudding, you'll need roughly chopped and pitted dates – you'll find dates at the supermarket. Use fresh eggs, ideally at room temperature.

The rest of the ingredients are pantry staples. Caster sugar (also known as superfine sugar) is ideal for this recipe and SR flour (that's self-raising flour) can be substituted with plain flour/all purpose flour plus baking powder.

To make the (absolutely essential) butterscotch sauce to drizzle over the pudding, you'll also need unsalted butter, brown sugar and thickened cream (heavy cream).

Find the full ingredient list along with quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Equipment

Don't worry if you don't have a pudding mould. For this recipe you can make single-serve puddings in a standard muffin/cupcake tin or use two bar tins (approx 24 x 14cm).

How to make Sticky Date Pudding

Grease the tins well and pre-heat the oven to moderate (180 degrees celsius / 360 degrees fahrenheit).

You'll also need to pop a baking dish filled with water on the bottom shelf of the oven. This will keep the oven nice and steamy and ensure your pudding has a lovely soft texture.

The precise method is easy to follow – find it in the recipe card at the very end of this post. Make sure you keep scrolling to find the tested and tweaked instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

The most important things to note with the method are:

• do not fill the tins more than ⅔ full (see image 1) (you want a flat top so the pudding can be turned upside down to serve - not only does this achieve a more pudding-like shape but the butterscotch sauce is also absorbed more easily into the pudding)
• cover the tins loosely with foil before placing into the oven (see image 2)
• make sure the baking tray on the bottom shelf has water in it throughout the entire baking process
• the baking times vary depending on the tins you use, so make sure to check the precise time below in the recipe card.

Sticky date pudding sauce

Oh, yes. That butterscotch sauce is as good as it looks. And it's an absolutely essential part of the Sticky Date Pudding experience.

As you can see, you flip the little puddings upside down to get that nice little pudding shape. And this means it also drinks up that secret sauce a lot better.

The sauce is easy to make up, and you can do it while the puddings are in the oven. Simply add all of the ingredients in a saucepan and, stirring, bring to the boil. Simmer for three minutes and you have your secret sauce.

Shhh... don't tell anyone it's that easy when you serve it up!

(And if you love butterscotch, you might also like this butterscotch self-saucing pudding or these butterscotch scones.)

Serving and storage

Okay, so it's pretty easy to enjoy this dessert. Just remember that it's best served warm with the butterscotch sauce (also warm) and cream or ice-cream.

It will keep for about a week in the fridge and can be re-heated in the microwave. Take care to re-heat the sauce gently.

You can also wrap and freeze the puddings for up to 6 months.

More pudding recipes

Made this recipe and love it? Please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. (And it really makes my day to hear how Nana Ling's recipes are being made, shared and loved all around the world! - Libby x)

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