I've loved sticky toffee pudding since I first tried it years ago in England.  Since going gluten-free, I've tried a couple experiments, but none of them turned out - until now!  Oh, my goodness, I'm so glad I got over my aversion to chopping up dried dates.  Turns out they are, thankfully, very different to the dried prunes my grandma used to offer me when I was a kid.  When soaked and baked into a sticky toffee pudding, dried dates add the perfect flavor.  I love this toffee sauce, too.  It's much more creamy than an ordinary toffee sauce, so I find it isn't as sweet.  Yum.  Leftovers store perfectly in the refrigerator and heat up perfectly with a bit of sauce drizzled on top.  Enjoy! 

Gluten-Free Sticky Toffee Pudding with Homemade Toffee Sauce on top!

Amazing Sticky Toffee Pudding

Inspired by and partially based on a recipe in the NYTimes.  

Makes a 9 x 13 pan that serves ~12  

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Butter a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. 

In a bowl, soak for 5-10 minutes: 

1 cup boiling water

1 cup chopped (pitted) dried dates (after chopping, press them into your 1 cup measuring cup so you have a nice, generous amount of dates)

In a food processor, blend together: 

3/4 cup Kristin's Gluten-Free Flour Mix

1/2 - 2/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Add your soaked dates and the liquid.  Blend just until smooth in the food processor.  

Pour into the buttered 9 x 13 baking dish.  Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 F, until nicely set in the middle.  

While the pudding is baking, make the sauce. 

The date pudding, fresh from the oven.  

Toffee Sauce & Topping Recipe

In a medium-sized saucepan, heat together over medium heat, stirring occasionally: 

2 cups/473 ml heavy whipping cream (35%) (lactose-free whipping cream works perfectly, too)

1/2 cup/8 Tbsp butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Heat until mixture is bubbling nicely, and is smooth and even.  Let it bubble for only a minute or two, then remove from heat.  

Toffee sauce, ready to use!

To finish your sticky toffee pudding:

After baking your cake, set oven to broil.  If you have an option, I recommend the broil "low" setting.  

Pour 1/2 of your toffee sauce slowly and evenly over the baked pudding.  

Cake covered with half of the toffee sauce.

Place the cake under the broiler, checking every minute until the top is nice and bubbly and you're just barely starting to see a few brown spots (I recommend checking every minute because some broilers are HOT and some are cooler).   Broiling the top of your sticky toffee pudding should take 2-4 minutes.  

Broiled until bubbling nicely and you're just seeing some browned spots.

Remove from the oven.  Serve warm in a bowl with additional sauce served overtop!  Leftovers can be stored separately (cake in one container, sauce in another).  Serving leftovers into a bowl and heating them up together works perfectly.  Enjoy!!!

This cake slices nicely.  I like to cut nice, even squares to serve.

Serve each square with extra toffee sauce on top.  Yum! Sticky Toffee Pudding at it's best! 

Amazing Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!