Cold weather pudding

The beautiful thing about cold weather is that I get to eat all these delicious yummy puds without a shred of guilt and I have started early. It also means that I don't have to cook or make them everyday as these desserts are made in bulk: bread pudding; sticky toffee; rice puddings (endless list).

So I made this sticky toffee, moist, light and the sauce makes it sticky and moreish. I mus admit though that I tend to reduce the sugar quantities on the sauce otherwise it will be sickly, but drizzle a little bit of cream on top when I'm eating yum yum.

For the pudding:
60g unsalted butter
60g caster sugar
150g dates pitted and chopped into small pieces
1teaspoon bicarb
150g self raising
2 eggs
250ml warm water

Toffee sauce:
200g butter
200g dark muscovado sugar
400mls double cream
1tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180C
Instructions:
Add bicarb to the water then the chopped dates and leave to soak for 10 minutes
Pour the date mixture into a food processor and blitz for about 2 minutes
Whisk butter till soft, add sugar and whisk again then add the two eggs
Add the flour then the blitzed date mixture and fold until all is incorporated
Pour into a small loaf tin and bake for 35-40minutes

Add the sauce ingredients and cook on medium heat for about 5minutes stirring all the time ensuring the sauce doesn't burn
Pour generously over pudding on serving or pour over and allow the sauce to soak in.
(Recipe from Nigel Slater)