When life gets rough, I like to hold on to my dream,
Of relaxing in the summer sun, just lettin’ off steam. – Olaf

The cozy sunshine and cessation of classes makes day to day life just seem to slow down a bit during the summer season. I often find myself reflecting on the past school year, but recently I just can’t stop thinking about last summer’s family vacation. So this is the first in what will be a sweet (and savory!) series inspired by our eleven city adventure in Europe. The journey begins in London.

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pudding

Pronunciation: /ˈpo͝odiNG

• 1North American A dessert with a creamy consistency: ‘chocolate pudding’ ‘a rice pudding’
• 1.1chiefly British Any dessert.
• 1.2chiefly British The dessert course of a meal: what’s for pudding?

– Oxford Dictionaries

Sticky Toffee Pudding 

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

For the puddings:

• 100 g pitted Medjool dates
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 85 g self-raising flour, plus some for dusting cupcake pan
• 35 g canola oil, plus some for oiling cupcake pan
• 25 g dark brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 50 g plain nonfat yogurt

For the toffee sauce:

• 50 g dark brown sugar
• 10 g butter
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 25 g crème fraîche + 25 g plain nonfat yogurt, mixed

Directions:

1. Chop the dates into small pieces, put in a small bowl, and then pour 1/3 cup boiling water over. Let dates soak and cool for about 30 minutes.

1. Add vanilla extract and maple syrup to the softened dates and mash with a fork to a rough purée.
2. Preheat oven to 375 F.
3. Combine baking soda and flour in a small bowl. In a medium bowl, combine oil, sugar, and egg. Gently fold in half of the flour mixture, followed by yogurt, and ending with the other half of the flour mixture.  Be careful not to over mix. Gently fold in date puree.
4. Spoon batter evenly in 6 oiled and floured (shaking off any excess) cupcake tins and bake for 20-25 minutes.
5. To make the sauce, combine sugar and butter in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar starts to melt into the butter. The mixture will be quite thick and the sugar won’t be completely dissolved yet at this stage. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in maple syrup and vanilla extract. Then stir in crème fraîche + yogurt mixture one spoonful at a time, so it gets incorporated smoothly. You should immediately notice the sauce start to gloss up as the sugar dissolves completely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  6. To serve, loosen puddings out of their molds and drizzle with toffee sauce.

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