One of our favorite desserts is a sweet, delicious sticky toffee pudding. This recipe builds on that favorite recipe by adding in delicious sauteed apples and a touch of molasses. The richness of the dates and apples and sweet toffee sauce is just wonderfully delicious! I find it's a lovely mid-winter treat. Enjoy!
Delicious apple sticky toffee pudding, ready to bake, then top with toffee sauce!
Apple Sticky Toffee Pudding
Makes a 9 x 13 pan or two 8 x 8 pans, serves ~12
Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter a 9 x 13 glass baking dish or two 8 x 8 baking dishes.
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)
Cook over medium heat, just until apples are softening a bit:
4 Cortland apples, peeled and diced (or similar apple that holds it shape while cooking)
1-2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
In a food processor, or with a stick blender, blend together:
3/4 cup Kristin's Gluten-Free Flour Mix
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
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.
Fold the apples into the batter.
Pour into the buttered 9 x 13 baking dish or two 8 x 8 baking dishes. Bake at 350 F until nicely set in the middle. I suggest 30 - 35 minutes for the 8 x 8 dishes and 35-40 minutes for the 9 x 13 pan.
While the pudding is baking, make the sauce, below.
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
1/2 tsp cinnamon
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, ready to broil.
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 toffee 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!!!
Cut and serve squares of these delicious puddings with extra toffee sauce on top. Yum!
