STICKY DATE PUDDING WITH TOFFEE SAUCE

I start by agreeing to the fact, that my ft fingers have been too lazy to share a dessert recipe in a while. But where there is a will, their is a way. And finally I have been able to cajole my fingers to work on something other than boring excels, and here we are, with a secret to entertaining guests and friends with elan, without having to sweat in the tropical heat of the kitchen.

This recipe as many others was tried to clean up my fridge space, as a part of my fridge raid expedition. I did tell you about the two things, lying in abundance in my kitchen is chai masala and dates. so lets com together to grant them a different and surely more delicious avatar.  Even though I agree, the recipe has two parts, but difficult or time consuming aren't the adjectives that can be put to use here: The cake and the sauce to go with it. I did try it without the dark luscious caramel sauce. But you know what, its like yin & yang. half of it, will never make an impact and all your effort and love will go in vain. So lets be brave and march forward.

Even though I make it sound like a war in a battlefield, soothing tells me, all this is going to be a breeze walk for all of you wonderful people out there. Hail gluttony and here we start:

1. Start by chopping up 225 gm fresh dates (stoned of-course), into chunks. Put in a bowl and cover them with 200 ml boiling water + 1 tsp baking soda. Soak for 15 mins max, to soften the dates.

2. Once softened, drain & make a puree in your blender with a splash of water. Keep aside.
3. Preheat oven to 175 C. Grease your pudding/cake tin and line with parchment.
4. In a bowl sieve in the dry ingredients: 170 gm Flour + 2.5 tbsp hot chocolate mixture & keep aside.
5. Beat 2 tbsp yoghurt till smooth and keep aside. Measure out 170 gm caster sugar.
6. In a bowl, start creaming 85 gm soft salted/unsalted butter (at room temperature) with the sugar  till pale, aerated & have incorporated well.

7.Time to add in 1 egg and beat again. Followed by the hot chocolate mix, whisk it in as well!!

8. Sieve in the dry ingredients into the butter & sugar mix and combine well with a whisk.

9. The final step is to combine the date puree into the batter, by mixing lightly.

10. Pour the batter into the prepared tin & bake for 45 mins. Please not: This is a dense cake, so the skewer inserted will not come out very clean.

11. Once out of oven, keep it aside to cool in it's own tin  for 45 mins, then take it out on a serving platter.

TOFFEE SAUCE: 
The ingredients are simple to find, if you look around. Here's a pic of what all we will need for the sauce:

1. In a bottom heavy pan measure out 115 gm unsalted/ salted butter + 115 gm light brown sugar + 140 ml double cream.

2. Place the pan on the lowest flame and cook until the sugar dissolves, and it darkens in color. Once bubbles start appearing on the surface add in 1.5 tsp ginger juice for the kick.
3. A good tip will be to swirl the pan to melt the sugar, but this will not take much time. 5 mins should be good!!

4. Once the sauce is ready scoop out portion of the pudding in your serving plate and top with the warm thick sauce. Serve!!

I loved this quarantine recipe for sure, not only because it involves minimum effort, slowing me more tie to laze around,also because this was a part of my fridge cleaning campaign. I know of none who complained about the flavors, rather I remember my family happily diving in for seconds. If you ask e personally, this will be enough to feed 8 people, and some leftovers are guaranteed. The pudding turns out to be dense & filling, leaving no more space in your tummy. However, some finer points, as always are mentioned here:

a. In case if hot chocolate mix is not available , feel free to use 2 tbsp of chocolate flavored energy drink + 1/2 tsp fruit cake spice mix.
b. In case you have stock of unsalted butter, feel free to use that. In such case, do add in  pinch of sale to the batter & the sauce, as well.
c. Ginger juice might be a tad bit too strong for some taste buds, in that case 1 tsp of ginger powder should do well, in case you have it. Or dear readers, you can give the ginger story a miss.
d. The pudding can be served without sauce as well, in that case, I would advise you to serve it alongside ice cream. My taste buds made it clear that the dense pudding would love some sort of liquid lubrication.
e. In case you want a milder sweetness in your pudding, replace caster sugar with brown sugar.
f. The pudding can be prepared a couple of days ahead and stored in fridge, wrapped properly with cling film & in foil. Take my advice and rustle up the sauce on the same day for maximum effect.

That's that. The sauce recipe is for keeps, trust me, this goes well when served alongside some Museli or Oats & yoghurt for breakfast or on top of some home bakes regular vanilla muffins. In case if you like yours boozy, a splash of rum would be a wonderful addition. Also the above image shows the source of this recipe, Jamie Oliver it is.  Honestly I din't change it much. I mean why should anyone, if everything looks good to you!!

Do make this in your kitchen, to put a sweet ending to never ending chatters during memorable family gatherings. This can be a sure shot winner, when having friends over for a weekday after- work supper. See you soon, peeps. Be safe. Take good care!!!