Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel Sauce
Sometime in the early 1990s I pasted a recipe clipped from from The Australian Gourmet Traveller into my battered blue recipe folder. I have altered it a little but that Sticky Date Pudding recipe is just as popular now as it was in the early 1990s, especially amongst those with a sweet tooth and weakness for pudding. My chief taster is one such person.
I think it’s the sauce that set this pudding apart, the sweet unctious caramel sauce is irresistible.
My pudding recipe makes 8 very generous serves.
200g dried dates, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
2/3 cup boiling water
125g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
125g spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Sauce:
200g brown sugar
50g butter
300mls cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 tablespoons brandy
Pre heat the oven to 180C.
Grease a 20cm square cake tin and line with baking paper.
Put the dates in a small bowl, sprinkle over the bicarbonate and pour over the boiling water.
Set aside to cool.
Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Sift the flour and baking powder into the butter mixture then add the cooled undrained dates.
Beat until smooth.
Pour the pudding batter into the cake tin and spread to the corners.
Bake until the centre springs back when touched, approximately 30 minutes.
Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.
Sauce:
Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and over a low heat, stirring constantly until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved. Bring the sauce to the boil, remove from the heat and stir in the brandy. Spoon over the pudding and serve.
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33 comments on “Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel Sauce”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
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I confess: I’m one of “those with a sweet tooth and weakness for pudding.” And that looks absolutely divine.
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Thanks Michelle I’ve just been drooling over your blueberry and lemon dessert!
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I still get stumped over puddings that are cakes! This dessert is gorgeous. I think I gained 5 pounds just looking at it!!!
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The pudding/cake name confusion is clear cur here. Cake is served cold, cake named pudding is hot.
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I’m entirely intrigued by this dessert. I KNOW the texture will be bewitching but I’m wondering, isn’t it too sweet? Or just sweet enough? I would love to find out for myself.
Also: HI! So happy to get back to reading your blogs after a long absence and thank you for keeping in touch with me while I was having my excellent adventure in Iran 🙂
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Thanks Azita, I really enjoyed your Instagram journey, it was quite an eye opener for me. I had formed a picture in my mind of Iran as being a lot like India, beautiful but grungy and chaotic. Your photos left me with the impression that it’s clean and organized and despite what the media here reports, quite westernized. I have travelled to the east of Turkey, the closest I have been to Iran, I saw many similarities….
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Hi Fae, the original recipe specified AP flour so spelt not necessary. Spelt isn’t GF but bettered tolerated than wheat. It is assumed that dried dates would be used as that is all you could get here 30yrs ago.The bicarb is used when soaking the dates to help soften them. The proportion of baking powder to flour changed here when they removed the aluminium hydroxide a few years ago. Use what is locally accepted for your ingredients. I think this dessert would benefit from the inclusion of lemon or orange zest in the cake batter to soften the sweetness
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Thank you so much for the detailed response. Lemon or orange zest does wonders to recipe, and I am sure it will add a balance to the date’s taste as you are saying. 🙂
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– It is quite customary for Iranians to have dates available for guests when tea is served. This cake is going to be so~ popular.
– I have curiosity questions. Does it have to be spelt flour (is it g/f)?
Why are both bicarbonate soda and baking powder used (is there any acidity in any of the ingredients used)?
Have you ever heard “1 tsp of baking powder/soda to each cup of flour”?
I always wonder, based on what is the ration of baking powder/soda determined. Do you know?
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Yum! This certainly takes me back a few years 🙂
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Yep, a real blast from the past, but still a good pud!
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I’ve never tried anything that comes even close. I’ll probably wait until it is quite a bit colder, but I am putting this down on my to try list for sure. Thanks for sharing, Sandra!
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It’s an anglo aussie style dessert, perfect for the cold weather, enjoy…
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Hi Sandra, last night I’ve finally made this. Everyone loved it! Post to follow…
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Glad you enjoyed the sticky date pudding Stefan, look forward to the post…
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You are so evil! This is so stunning, it is painful to look at… 😉
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I least your waistline was saved..
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Delicious and that sauce steal the show
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The sauce would be great with ice cream too
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Do you think the butter could be reduced with use of the dates?
The sauce looks wonderful. How special that you have had this in your folder for so long.
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Interesting question. It certainly would be worth a try
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Hi Sandra, it certainly is a nice looking desert for these cold nights.
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Thanks Glenda, my other half loves wintery puddings…
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This is the only way to make me eat dates… I have a similar recipe on my archive, but with regular white flour, next time I will try with spelt flour! Thanks for sharing!
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Oh I adore dates, simply to snack on, but they are great in baking too
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Goodness me, this is so yummy!!!
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You’re so right Serena, if you have a sweet tooth, this is for you…
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Yes, I definitely have! 🙂
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Looks sensational, love those old recipes that we keep for years and perfect. Will be trying this as a gluten free version. Wish I had some now, it’s a super cold windy day here.
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Ffffffreezing here too, just a perfect night for pudding!
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Sticky Toffee Pudding – an old favourite winter comfort food here in the UK! Originally the recipe called for it to be steamed, but now most people bake them as you have done.
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It’s sad that steamed pud is out of fashion. I’ve only ever known sticky date pudding as a baked dessert. Desserts like this really show the strong Anglo Aussie connection!
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