Recipe - Little Sticky Toffee Puddings With Pecan Toff

FOR PUDDINGS
3 ounce Butter, at room temp
5 ounce Caster sugar
2 Eggs, beaten
6 ounce Dates, chopped
6 fl ;boiling water
One half teaspoon Vanilla
2 teaspoon Coffee essence(I would skip)
Three fourths teaspoon Baking soda

FOR THE SAUCE
6 ounce Brown sugar
4 ounce Butter
6 tablespoon Double cream
1 ounce Pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350~ F. You will need eight 6 ounce metal pudding basins or
eight 3 inch ramekin dishes, lightly oiled with vegetable oil. A swiss roll
tin and a baking sheet.

Begin by putting the chopped dates in a bowl and pouring boiling water over
them. Then add vanilla, coffee essence and baking soda. Put to one side.
Next in a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugar together, beating
(preferrably with an electric hand whisk) until mixture is pale, light and
fluffy. Now gradually add beaten eggs a little at a time, beating well
after each addition. After that, carefully and lightly fold in the sifted
flour using a metal spoon, then fold in date mixture including liquid. The
mixture will look sloppy, but don't worry. That is perfectly correct and
the slackness of the mixture is what makes the pudding so light. Now divide
the mixture equally between the eight containers. Place them on a baking
tray and bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes.

Using a palette knife, slide it around each pudding and turn it out. If
they have risen too high, you may have to cut a slice of the top so that
they can sit evenly on the plate. Now place the puddings on a shallow,
swiss roll type pan.

Next, make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a saucepan and
heating very gently until sugar has melted and all the crystals dissolved.

To serve puddings: Preheat broiler to its highest setting, and pour the
sauce evenly over the puddings. Place the pan under the broiler so the tops
are about 5 inches from the heat. Knock off any nuts on top to prevent them
browning. Let the puddings heat through for 8 minutes. The tops will
become brown and slightly crunchy and the sauce will be hot and bubbling.
Serve with chilled pouring cream.

Note: After freezing, defrost, pour hot sauce over and reheat.

From Delia Smith's Christmas 1990 published by BBC books

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini