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And before we know it Week 4 of Great British Bake Off has come and gone! This week was pudding week and for the Technical Challenge Prue asked them to make four individual Sticky Toffee Puddings! I could not have been happier with this technical – Sticky Toffee Pudding is my all-time favourite dessert! I LOVE Sticky Toffee Pudding and quite essentially – it has to be DROWNING in toffee/butterscotch sauce! That’s the way I like it XD
So in my mission to complete every Bake Off Technical this season, here is my take on Prue’s individual Sticky Toffee Puddings with Sesame Tuiles, Toffee Sauce and Crème Anglaise (custard)!
What do you need to make Prue’s Sticky Toffee Puddings?
This technical challenge recipe is a bit more extensive as it requires you to make four individual components: the sticky toffee puddings themselves, a toffee sauce, a vanilla custard and some sesame tuiles. You can find Prue’s original recipe here.
Ingredients
The tuiles actually tasted really good, but I’m not sure if they add much to the recipe… To be honest, I’m not sure they go with the puddings at all and I’m sure they are just there for decorations or maybe even give the bakers “something else to do” to make this challenge harder. They also require some slightly more unusual ingredients such as liquid glucose and black sesame seeds, which you may not have in your cupboard already and can be more expensive to buy for this recipe specifically. So if you’re not too fussed about making the recipe exactly the same as on Bake Off, perhaps you want to skip the tuiles…
Equipment
In terms of equipment, four individual pudding moulds are obviously essential. I bought mine from Lakeland, which I bought to make last year’s Cake Week Technical – Paul’s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes. For the tuiles, you will need a silicone baking mat (I used the one I received in the September Bake Off Box). A silicone mat is easiest to use, but I’m sure you could also use a piece of non-stick baking paper.
The recipe also calls for blending the dates using a small food processor or a stick blender. I do have a small food processor which I can thoroughly recommend and did use for this recipe. However, I often just mash the soaked dates with a fork or potato masher when making sticky toffee puddings, so just do that if you don’t have any “fancy” equipment!
The scores on the doors – How would I rate Prue’s Sticky Toffee Puddings?
Now, as I said at the start of this post, Sticky Toffee Pudding is my absolute favourite and I’d like to think of myself as a bit of a sticky toffee pudding connoisseur… I’ve had some really bad and really good ones over the years, and have made them quite often myself. I usually use the BBC Good Food Ultimate Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe, and I think that probably is one of the best recipes out there!
To be fair, Prue’s actual sticky toffee puddings are pretty good. What I liked most about the recipe, is that it uses dates, something I think is essential to make these puddings sweet and give them that perfectly sticky consistency!
In my opinion, the toffee/butterscotch sauce is one of the best things about this pudding and needs to absolutely DROWN the sponge! I actually doubled the quantities for the toffee sauce when I made these puddings, whilst halving those of the custard as I am less of a fan of that. Prue’s sauce was good, but not as good (and harder to make because it required making a caramel first) than the one from the BBC good food recipe. So I would probably recommend using that instead! I have also never added some sauce at the bottom of the mould before. I actually found that this made it more likely for the puddings to stick to the bottom of the mould, so I would probably recommend not doing that and just pouring all of the sauce over the puddings in the end… but that is up to you.
Finally, Prue also asked the bakers to make a custard (for which the French name is crème Anglaise) to accompany the pudding. Custard isn’t my favourite, I much prefer just having loads of toffee sauce. However, custard is something every baker should know how to make, so make sure to check out my Baking Basics post here to read all my tips and tricks to guarantee success!
More Bake Off Technical Challenges
I am absolutely obsessed with the Great British Bake Off and have challenged myself to attempt all of (or at least the ones that are “realistic” – I won’t be making pitta breads on a camp fire in the back garden!) the technical challenges from the programme! I have tried quite a few already, so make sure you check out some of the other recipes and see how I got on!
- Mary Berry’s Religieuses
- Mary Berry’s Fraisier Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Hand-raised Chicken, Bacon and Apricot Pies
- Mary Berry’s Bakewell Tart with feathered Icing
- Paul’s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes
- Mary Berry’s Frosted Walnut Layer Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf
- Mary Berry’s Homemade Jaffa Cakes
- Paul Hollywood’s Wagon Wheel Biscuits
- Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Mini Pork Pies
- Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls
- Prue’s Vegan Chocolate and Raspberry Tarts (S2UC Special)
- Pizza Star Bread (Junior Bake Off)
- Mary Berry’s Coffee and Walnut Battenberg Cake
- Paul’s Crusty White Cob
- Paul Hollywood’s Rainbow Bagels
- Prue Leith’s Malt Loaf
- Paul’s Jammy Biscuits
- Paul Hollywood’s Olive Ciabatta Bread Sticks with Homemade Tzatziki
- Prue Leith’s Sticky Toffee Puddings with Sesame Tuiles
- Prue Leith’s Prinzregententorte
- Paul Hollywood’s Baklava (22cm)
- Paul’s Caramel Biscuit Bars (Twix)
- Prue Leith’s Vegan Sausage Rolls
- Prue’s Sablé Breton Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Sticky Belgian Buns
- Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
- Prue’s Garibaldi Biscuits with Feathered Chocolate Icing
- Paul Hollywood’s Pain au Raisins
- Paul’s Spicy Beef Tacos
- Paul Hollywood’s S’mores
- Prue Leith’s Pistachio Praline Ice Cream Cones
- Vegetable Spring Rolls
- Prue’s Vertical Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Raspberry Tarts
- Paul Hollywood’s Devonshire Splits
Prue’s Sticky Toffee Puddings with Sesame Tuiles, Toffee Sauce and Custard | Bake Off Technical Challenge
Recipe
Ingredients:
FOR THE SESAME TUILES:
- 40g unsalted butter
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 20g liquid glucose
- 20g plain flour
- 60g icing sugar
- 20g toasted hazelnuts, chopped
- 20g sesame seeds
- 10g black sesame seeds
FOR THE TOFFEE SAUCE:
- 100g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 100ml double cream
- 50g unsalted butter
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
FOR THE STICKY TOFFEE PUDDINGS:
- 115g soft pitted dates, roughly chopped
- 140ml boiling water
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 45g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
- 45g caster sugar
- 45g dark muscovado sugar
- 1 large egg
- 100g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
FOR THE CRÈME ANGLAISE:
- 150ml whole milk
- 150ml double cream
- ½ vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out (or use 1 tsp vanilla bean paste)
- 4 large egg yolks
- 30g caster sugar
YOU WILL ALSO NEED:
- Silicone baking mat, set on a baking tray (or a baking tray lined with baking paper)
- Mini food processor or stick blender (alternatively, mash the dates with a potato masher or fork)
- 4 individual pudding moulds (I bought mine from Lakeland)
Method:
- Start by preparing the hazelnuts for the sesame tuiles. Preheat the oven to about 180°C/160°C fan and place the hazelnuts on a roasting tray. Toast in the oven for about 4-5 minutes, turning once halfway through. Turn the oven off again for now. Transfer the hazelnut to a chopping board to cool slightly, then use a sharp knife to finely chop them.
- Next, place the butter, liquid glucose and lemon juice in a small saucepan and set over a low heat to melt. Remove from the heat and sift in the flour and icing sugar. Then add in the hazelnuts and sesame seeds and stir until combined. Then leave to stand for 30 minutes to thicken.
- Whilst you are waiting for the tuiles, you can start preparing the toffee sauce. Add the caster sugar and water to a saucepan and set over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Then turn up the heat and bring the syrup to a boil. Cook until the syrup turns a deep amber colour, making sure not to stir the pan but swirl instead to insure the caramel cooks evenly.
- Remove from the heat and add in the double cream and butter. Do this carefully as the mixture might splutter and split. Stir until combined and set back over a low heat to make sure all the butter and any hardened caramel has melted. Stir in the vanilla extract and then set aside until needed.
- You can also start preparing the dates for the pudding at this stage. Roughly chop the dates and add them to a heatproof bowl, then pour over the boiling water and stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Leave to stand for about 15 minutes.
- Once the tuile mix has thickened, heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan again. Spread the tuile mixture out thinly onto the silicone mat into a rectangle, roughly 30 x 20cm in size. Bake for 12 minutes until golden brown. The tuile should have spread to almost to the size of the mat whilst baking.
- Remove the sesame tuiles from the oven and leave to cool for about 3 minutes until just hard enough to transfer to a chopping board. Immediately cut the tuiles into 8 tall triangles with a 6cm base and that are roughly 15cm tall (it may be a good idea to make a stencil).
- To make the sticky toffee pudding batter, transfer the dates and their soaking water to the bowl of a small processor and blitz them to a smooth purée. Add the two sugars and butter to a mixing bowl and cream together for 3-5 minutes until fluffy. Add the egg and mix until combined, then add the flour and mix until just combined. Finally, add the puréed dates and fold them into the mix until there are no streaks.
- Lightly grease the pudding moulds with melted butter and lightly dust with flour. Spoon 1 tablespoon of the toffee sauce into the base of each of mould, then set the remaining sauce aside for later (see my comments above about adding the sauce beforehand. Prue recommended this but I would say that it is better to do this later to prevent the puddings from sticking). Then evenly divide the sticky toffee pudding batter between the moulds (around 4 tablespoons each).
- Bake the puddings at 180°C/160°C fan for 20–25 minutes, until the top of each pudding is springy to the touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Make the Crème Anglaise (custard) just before serving the puddings. To do so, whisk together the egg yolks and caster sugar until pale and frothy. Heat the milk, cream and vanilla in a pan over a medium heat until just below boiling point.
- Pour the warmed milk mixture over the eggs in a thin stream, whisking continuously. Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook it over a very low heat for 3–4 minutes. Stir continuously until the custard is smooth thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (check out my baking basics post here for more tips).
- Loosen the baked puddings around the sides, then turn them out onto a plate. To serve, reheat the toffee sauce over a low heat, then pour it over the puddings and serve them with the sesame tuiles and some of the Crème Anglaise.
