Little Icky Sticky Puddings With Caramel Sauce

Total Time: 40 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 12
• 170 g dates
• 300 ml water
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 170 g caster sugar
• 60 g butter, chopped and at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 170 g self raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 200 g brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 130 g butter, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Recipe

• 1 before you do anything else, place the dates and the water into a saucepan over a moderate heat and bring the mixture to a good rolling boil.
• 2 remove saucepan from the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda.
• 3 now, allow the date mixture to cool while you prepare the other ingredients.
• 4 set the oven to 180c (350f).
• 5 grease a muffin tin (i use one that makes 12 muffins) very well.
• 6 in a medium sized mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.
• 7 still beating, add eggs, one at a time, and beat until the beaters leave a'trail' in the mixture- it should be the consistency of whipped cream.
• 8 add vanilla and mix briefly to combine.
• 9 sift the flour into this mixture, then fold it in lightly but thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
• 10 when the date mixture is cooled (no hotter than luke warm), tip it into the other ingredients and stir lightly but thoroughly to combine.
• 11 a light hand in mixing at this stage will ensure light puddings.
• 12 don't worry that the mixture looks very liquid at this stage- that's how it's supposed to look.
• 13 spoon mixture into muffin cups, filling each cup almost, but not quite, to the top (they don't rise too much).
• 14 bake on the centre shelf of a preheated 180c (350f) oven for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer, inserted in the centre of a pudding, comes out clean.
• 15 when cooked, remove tray from oven and allow puddings to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing to serve or to cool on wire racks.
• 16 (if puddings stick, run a knife around the outside, and allow puddings to cool a little more before carefully easing out of the pan.) serve warm with hot caramel sauce.
• 17 to make the caramel sauce combine all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan over a moderate heat and bring to the boil.
• 18 reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes.
• 19 serve over warm puddings.