Gemma Stafford Makes Traditional English Sticky Toffee Pudding | Bigger Bolder Baking

Hi Bold Bakers! One of the beautiful things about our Bold Baking community is that you guys are from different countries and different cultures and I want to celebrate that in a series that I call Bold Baking Worldwide. In this series we've already done lots of recipes like alfajores from Argentina, butter mochi from Hawaii and malva pudding from South Africa. Today we are going to make a traditional English sticky toffee pudding. This is a really simple recipe and I know you're going to love it. So here I have a nice little saucepan for myself. Into this we are going to add in our dried dates. Now these are lovely nice dried dates, what you have to make sure is take out the pits because you don't want that as a little surprise later on. So into your pot and then into this we're going to add in some water. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to pop this bad boy on the stovetop on medium low heat and we're going to cook it for a few minutes until the dates really soften. And this is just going to give a lovely texture and flavor to our sticky toffee puddings. So our prunes have softened and they've also plumped up so these are ready to go. So into our cooked dates we are going to go and add in some of the leavening agent which is some baking soda. You'll notice that it fizzes up and that's the reaction of it hitting the water. So our dates are all lumpy, here's what we're going to do. You want to process your dates so you can put it in a blender, a food processor. What I like to do is use an immersion blender and just blitz them all up until it's a lovely kind of a smooth paste. Now for those of you who don't have a food processor, an immersion blender is such a fantastic tool in the kitchen. I've had one ever since I was young. I remember asking my mom when I was like 12 years of age to buy me one so I could make soups at home. I just love them and it just works really well. It's inexpensive and it takes up very little space. So there you go. Check that out. That is our date mix. Perfect. We are going to set that over to the side, let it cool down completely and we're going to start to make the rest of our cake. Ok, so into my bowl I'm going to add in some softened butter. Make sure it's softened so it's easy to whip up. And then some brown sugar. Now I actually ran out of brown sugar so I made my own and I've got a video of how you can do that. So super easy. And then with a whisk, just mix these two ingredients together. You want to mix them together until they've kind of lightened up and they're nice and creamy. So a fun fact about sticky toffee pudding, it is said to have originated in Northwest England at a hotel, but some people say that it actually originated from two Canadian guests who stayed at the hotel and they actually passed the recipe on to the lady of the house. So it's a little bit unclear about exactly where it came from, but all I know is that in Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, this is a really, really popular dish. If you haven't tried it, you definitely want to. Ok, so this is looking good. Next I'm going to add in my eggs. I like to have my eggs at room temperature when I'm baking because they blend up so much better with the rest of the ingredients. And then of course, a dash of my very favorite vanilla extract. I get a lot of questions. You have to use vanilla extracts like no, you don't have to, but it just makes everything so much better. Ok, lovely. Really simple. So into this, we're going to add in our dry ingredients, some flour, baking powder and salt and just gently mix those in. So in those few minutes, our dates have cooled down. So now lastly, we are going to add this mix in and then just give it a stir. Look at that lovely batter. What I love about these is they get kind of like a caramelly tone because of the brown sugar and everything. Lovely. Now let's get our cupcake pan. Now as you can see, I buttered the wells really well. I don't use cupcake liners. I just put it straight into the pan and they do pop out. So don't worry about that. Divide your batter then between the 12 wells. Almost I'd say three quarters way to the top. I'm filling mine maybe a bit too much. We're going to put them into the oven and see what happens. I'm a glutton for punishment. OK, lovely. Fantastic. There we go. Lovely little cakes ready to go into the oven. These little puddings only take around 25 minutes. They bake really fast. You can tell when they're done because if you push your finger down on top, it's kind of firm underneath. So these are perfect. So when it comes to topping these, I like to keep a traditional with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and a generous pour of warm salted caramel sauce. Now of course, my chief taste tester has to try these out. Kevin, Jim, I'm so excited. I love sticky toffee pudding. Tell me what you think. Give me your honest opinion. Oh man, the caramel is incredible. And the cake itself is just lovely and moist. It's really soft. This is so good. And it's kind of caramelly because of the dates and the brown sugar in there. It's amazing. I'm loving these Bold Baking Worldwide recipes. Well, it's like a little bit of a tour, a world tour for your taste buds. Exactly. I really hope you're enjoying these recipes from around the world. And it's a lot of fun making them. Here's what I want you to do. Shout out in the comments below what part of the world you're from and a traditional dish and you never know, you might see it in an upcoming video. Can't wait to hear from you guys. Thanks so much for watching. Can I run out of ice cream? Let's get some more.