Sticky Date Pudding
Ingredients
| 1 1/4 cups water | |
| 250g chopped dates | |
| 100g finely chopped glace ginger, cherries or pineapple (optional) | |
| 1 teaspoon carb soda | |
| 90g butter | |
| 3/4 cup castor sugar | |
| 2 eggs | |
| 1/2 tsp vanilla | |
| 1 1/4 cups plain flour | |
| Sauce | |
| 1 cup brown sugar | |
| 1 cup cream | |
| 125g butter | |
| 1/2 tsp vanilla |
Method
Pudding
Place water, dates and ginger in medium saucepan. Bring *slowly* to the boil, stirring occasionally. (Slowly, so dates soften.)
Remove from heat, add carb soda, mix well, and allow to cool to lukewarm.
Beat butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs until light and creamy. Fold date mixture and flour into butter mixture. Stir until combined, but do not over-beat.
Spoon into a large dish, or 8 individual ramekins. For ramekins, bake 35-40 minutes. For large dish, bake 1 - 1 1/2 hours depending on depth of dish. A shallow dish is best so the pudding won't burn before cooking all the way through.
When almost cooked, spoon a little sauce over the top and bake another 5 minutes.
Sauce
Combine brown sugar, vanilla, cream and butter in saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves (Make sure sugar is dissolved before it boils.)
Stop stirring once mixture boils. Let boil for 3 minutes (uncovered).
Watch carefully as it tends to boil over.
Spoon a little of the sauce over pudding while cooking (see above). Drizzle the rest over pieces of the pudding when serving.