i heart ... sticky toffee

on saturday brook and i had our most recent recipe exchange.

i made "sticky toffee dessert".

i found the recipe in a nigella lawson cookbook.

i loved it!

it was like a caramel bread pudding.

i made extra for my family

and they loved it too.

(although, kaitlyn said she likes german chocolate cake better.

but whatever!)

sticky toffee dessert

nigella lawson

cake:

1/3 cup of dark brown sugar, packed

1 cup + 2 tbls. self-rising flour

1/2 cup whole milk

1 egg

1 teas. vanilla extract

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup + 2 tbls. chopped rolled dates

(yes, dates... i hate dates, but i went for it anyway and it totally worked!)

sauce:

3/4 cups dark brown sugar, packed

2 tbls. unsalted butter, separated into little blobs

2 1/4 cups boiling water

preheat oven to 375 degrees. butter a 1 1/2 quart capacity baking dish.

combine sugar and flour in a large bowl. pour milk into a medium sized bowl, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter and then pour this mixture over the sugar and flour, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine. fold in the dates, then scrape into the prepared baking dish. don't worry if it doesn't look very full.

sprinkle the sugar for the sauce over the cake batter and dot with the butter. pour the boiling water over the dough (yes, really!) and transfer to oven. set timer for 45 minutes, but may need 5 to 10 minutes more. top of dessert should be springy and spongy when it's done;

underneath, the butter, sugar and boiling water will have turned into a rich, sticky sauce.

serve warm with vanilla ice cream , crème fraîche or heavy cream.

serves 4