Day 138: an apex pud
Feeling a little lacklustre as of late. Like I’ve lost a bit of my shimmer. (Nothing to do with the cookalong, just in general). While I work on figuring out where it’s run off to - or vacated to - allow me to leave you with perhaps one of the finest puddings ever created: Nigella’s Sticky Toffee Pudding.
STP isn’t something I tend to make at home. It’s something I enjoy when eating out. That being said, I’m often too full, on starter and main, to squeeze in a pudding; longing to be in the car, and on the way home, so I can relax my stomach muscles, possibly go down a notch on the belt, and take a nap. It’s a dessert that’s judged from establishment to establishment by the entire nation. It’s a classic, a post-Sunday Dinner reward, and people expect the very best. Nobody wants their eat-out treat to be dry, lacking in sauce or disappointingly un-decadent.
My favourite, bill-fitting, sticky toffee pudding was at the pub I used to work at as a teenager. It was made by the landlady’s mother. Catering-size trays full of it. And the sauce. My god. Edible by the spoonful. Hot and cold!
Nigella’s Sticky Toffee Pudding
This was a last-minute decision on the way to the supermarket. We had friends coming over for dinner and, in my usual disorganised frenzy, I hadn’t planned the menu. For some reason, STP popped into my head. Perhaps someone Tweeted me about it. (If you did and you see this, thank you). I knew I had most of the stuff and all I needed were the dates. As usual, Nigella was there to save the day.
Even after soaking, the dates I used were a little tough so I just blitzed them with two short, sharp bursts of the stick blender. It’s not a difficult pudding to make - and the sauce is fear-free. I made everything a few hours ahead of time, poured some of the sauce (as instructed) over the freshly baked pud, covered with foil, and reheated on a very low oven when we were ready to dive in.
For me, hot puddings have to be served with a cold dairy, i.e. ice cream, double cream or cold custard. The only way I like hot custard is poured over ice cream. (Try it!). I’m also a huge fan of the Swedish vanilla sauce, or vaniljsås, and just adore eating the shop-bought versions straight from the carton with a spoon.
Flavour musings
This is the crème de la crème of the dessert world. It’s moist, sticky, deeply intense and gorgeously sweet, but at the same time light and fluffy with a wonderfully balancing bitterness from the black treacle and dark muscovado sugar. An apex pud!
