Sticky dates

This is our take on a delicious dessert from Masterchef. The original recipe was actually from a pressure test, but with a few tweaks you get a super quick and easy dessert.

We skipped on the almond praline in their recipe and stuck to just the pudding and sauce.

Ingredients for pudding
180g dates, pitted and roughly chopped
1¼ cups (310ml) water
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¾ cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter, softened chopped
2 eggs
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour

Ingredients for the sauce
50g butter
1 cup (220g) brown sugar
1 cup (250ml) thickened cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

So the ingredients are straight from the website, all we did was modify the steps a little.



I use Medjool dates - you can get these at Kakulas for about $18/kg. I've also seen Iranian dates there for only $2-3/kg, but have never tried them before - has anyone else?

So Pudding steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180C, grease / spray moulds (I've used a cupcake tin here, but I've also done it with ramekins).
2. In a pot, bring water and dates to the boil. Remove from heat and add bicarb -- this will break down the dates. Leave to cool.
3. Whisk butter and sugar in a mixing bowl -- if your butter isn't soft enough then try putting the bowl on top of the date pot and let the heat from that help melt the butter...
4. Whisk in eggs and date mixture.
5. Add flour and whisk well.
6. Pour into moulds, 2/3 full.
7. Bake as is, ~30mins for cupcake size.
   Alternatively, place the moulds into a baking tray and pour warm / hot water into the tray, ~1/3 up the mould; bake for ~40mins.
   I have had success baking both ways, but the water can help regulate the oven temperature better and makes for a slightly stickier pudding.
   

Butterscotch sauce:

1. Combine butter, sugar, cream and vanilla in a pan over low heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
2. Bring to the boil and cook on high heat, stirring continuously, until the sauce thickens slightly (5-6 minutes).
3. Stirring continuously keeps the sauce from burning and the high heat caramelises the brown sugar better.

Serve the pudding with the butterscotch sauce and your favourite ice cream flavour for a tasty dessert!

cat