Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Hi all!

After drooling over countless pictures and recipes on the internet, I finally decided on a recipe to follow and made them last week. Amidst all the craziness associated with last minute studying for tests, I dared put my notes down and took some time off revision to bake these yummies.

Ingredients and instructions taken from the Masterchef Australia official website.

Pudding
180g dates, pitted and roughly chopped
1¼ cups (310ml) water
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¾ cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter, softened chopped
2 eggs
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour

Butterscotch sauce
50g butter
1 cup (220g) brown sugar
1 cup (250ml) cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180˚C (160˚C fan-forced). Lightly grease eight (½ cup capacity) metal dariole moulds.

2. Place dates and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a high heat. Remove from the heat. Add bicarbonate of soda, stir until dates start to break down, set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.

3. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl using a hand beater, gradually add eggs one at a time, beat until light and fluffy.

4. Add date mixture, stir to combine. Carefully fold through sifted flour, divide mixture evenly between the eight moulds, until 2/3 full.

5. Place moulds in a baking tray, carefully pour water in tray until it comes up 1/3 of the side of the moulds. Bake in oven for 40 minutes or until golden and skewer comes out clean.

6. For the butterscotch sauce, combine butter, sugar, cream and vanilla in small saucepan over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Bring sauce to the boil, reduce heat and cook for 5-6 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly.

7. To serve, invert the hot pudding onto a serving plate and top with butterscotch sauce.

N.B. The original recipe included an almond praline, which I did not make. Also, I divided the pudding mixture into a 12-hole muffin tray and did not bake them in a water bath. I think it wouldn't make much of a difference.

The verdict?
Pudding was so soft and moist. It's on the sweet side, especially if you drench it in too much butterscotch sauce. Texture could be improved a little, maybe by adding a few more dates? It's another quick and easy to make recipe.. and with a few tweaks here and there, it will definitely be a winner! :)