My ultra-soft, best-ever Sticky Toffee Pudding is rich, moist, and bursting with warm, comforting flavors. Made with tender dates and finished with a luxurious butterscotch sauce, it delivers the irresistible warm and gooey texture you know and love!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe (also known as Sticky Date Pudding in Australia and New Zealand) is hands down one of my favorite desserts of all time! It originates from the United Kingdom, specifically from Northern England and consists of a tender date pudding (although it’s more like a cake), topped with a toffee (or butterscotch) sauce. Here’s why you’re going to love it:
Ultra-soft: The pudding (or cake) element of this recipe is incredibly soft and moist (check out the video for a visual). When developing this recipe, I wanted to ensure the puddings were soft and spongy, just like my aunt’s recipe. I found that extra dates, hot water, and melted butter created the soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture that makes these sticky toffee puddings irresistible!
Easy: I chose to use the muffin method for the batter (where the wet and dry ingredients are mixed separately, then combined—no need to cream butter and sugar so no electric mixer required), which makes this recipe super easy to put together!
Not-too-sweet: One issue with sticky toffee puddings is that they can sometimes be overwhelmingly sweet. In this recipe, I reduced the amount of brown sugar in the pudding to prevent it from being too sugary. When the sauce is added on top, it balances out perfectly. The sauce itself has a light caramel flavor (which can also be quite sweet), so I also slightly reduced the sugar in the sauce to keep it just right.
Want more warm, cozy recipes to try? Check out my gingerbread cake, carrot cake and apple pie recipe.
How to Make Sticky Toffee Pudding
You can find the full list of ingredients for this sticky toffee pudding recipe in the recipe card at the end of the blog post (for easy navigation, hit the ‘jump to recipe’ button at the top of the blog post). Here is a quick visual breakdown of the recipe (recipe video is also provided in the recipe card below).
Butterscotch Sauce (Toffee Sauce)
Place a small saucepan over medium-low heat and add in butter, brown sugar, heavy cream and vanilla. Stir frequently and bring to a simmer (like a gentle boil).
Simmer for a further 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Pour into a heatproof bowl or container (I usually just use a small bowl) and set aside.
Pudding
Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F) conventional and grease two standard 12-hole muffin trays and set aside. You can use a cake tin/baking dish too (to bake the pudding as a cake) or ramekins, you’ll just need to adjust the cook time.
In a food processor or blender, add in dates (any variety like medjool dates, ajwa or sukkari will work) baking soda and boiling water (do not blend yet). Stir with a spoon so that all the dates are covered in water and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk, mix until well combined. Set aside.
Return to the dates and blend until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl, making sure to scrape as much of it out as you can.
To the date puree, add in brown sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Using a whisk, mix until well combined.
Add in presifted dry ingredients from earlier and using a spatula, gently fold until just combined and the batter is uniform. It’s fine if the batter is a little lumpy, as long as there are no large pockets of unmixed flour. Take care not to overmix.
Distribute batter into muffin trays so that they’re ¾ full. You should have about 16 puddings. Drop the muffin trays lightly on the counter once to remove any large air bubbles and then bake one tray at a time in the middle rack of the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it.
Allow puddings to cool in the tray for about 15 minutes, before running a thin knife along the edges of the puddings to release them from the tray and turning them out onto a wire rack. Serve warm with a generous amount of the butterscotch sauce on top. Add a side of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to add a special touch!
How to Store Sticky Toffee Pudding
I recommend storing the pudding and sauce separately. You can store the pudding at room temperature for up to two days in an airtight container, after which it can be stored in the fridge for up to a week. The sauce should be kept refrigerated.
When ready to serve, warm the pudding in the microwave and slightly warm the sauce if it’s too thick. Pour the sauce over the top and serve.
My Best-Ever Sticky Toffee Pudding
Print Pin VideoIMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.
Ingredients
Butterscotch Sauce (Toffee Sauce)
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter - cold and cubed
- 1 cup (200 g) soft light brown sugar
- 1¼ cups (290 g) heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
Pudding
- 1¾ cups (285 g) pitted dates - 10 oz in the US
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1¼ cups (300 g) boiling water
- 1¼ cups (150 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup (100 g) soft light brown sugar
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter - melted
- 2 large eggs - room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
To Serve (optional)
- Whipped cream or ice cream
Instructions
Butterscotch Sauce (Toffee Sauce)
- Place a saucepan over low-medium heat and add in butter, brown sugar, heavy cream and vanilla. Stir frequently until simmering, and then simmer for a further 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Transfer to a heatproof bowl or container and set aside.
Pudding
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F) conventional (see note 1 if using a convection oven) and grease two standard 12-hole muffin trays (see note 2 if you only have one tray). Set aside.
- In a food processor or blender, add in dates, baking soda and boiling water (do not blend yet). Stir with a spoon so that all the dates are covered in water and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk, mix until well combined. Set aside.
- Return to the dates and blend until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl, making sure to scrape as much of it out as you can.
- To the date mixture, add in brown sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Using a whisk, mix until well combined.
- Add in presifted dry ingredients from earlier and using a spatula, gently fold until just combined and the batter is uniform. It's fine if the batter is a little lumpy, as long as there are no large pockets of unmixed flour. Take care not to overmix.
- Distribute batter into muffin trays so that they're ¾ full. You should have about 16 puddings. Drop the muffin trays lightly on the counter once to remove any large air bubbles and then bake one tray at a time in the middle rack of the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Allow puddings to cool in the tray for about 15 minutes, before running a thin knife along the edges of the puddings to release them from the tray and turning them out onto a wire rack. Serve warm with a generous amount of the butterscotch sauce on top. Add a side of whipped cream or ice cream to add a special touch!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
30 Comments
So good! Made for Valentine’s Day at home. My husband loved it.
So so happy to hear you and your husband enjoyed the recipe Whitneu! 😀
I’ve eaten my fair share of sticky toffee puddings from various restaurants and pubs in Scotland and NONE were as delicious as this recipe. Absolutely outstanding. (The sauce is incredible). I topped it with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Thanks for sharing it !
Aww this makes me so happy Kelli! So glad you loved the recipe – it’s one of my favs on the blog 😀
Hello Maryam
I bake this 3 times and each time it turns out really great but i have one question i like things which are less sweet so can i reduce dates or sugar
Will it effect the texture of cake
I also tried your vanilla and marble cake it was also worth every bite
Hello Laiba! So glad you’re enjoying the recipes 😀
So in the batter itself, you can reduce the sugar slightly (no more than 1/4 cup though otherwise it will affect the texture once baked). Alternatively you can keep the batter the same and reduce the sugar in the toffee sauce (the sauce may just be a little more thin).
Hope that helps 🙂
Your recipes are simple and sensible……. Never goes wrong. Thanks for sharing
Thanks so much Mini! Really appreciate the wonderful feedback 😀
Hi there, this recipe looks great. What cook time would you advise for a 6cup bundt cake… or maybe a 9in round spring form? Do I just keep going until the toothpick comes clean?
Hi Salina! 🙂
I haven’t tried this recipe in a bundt pan or spring form pan myself so I’m not too sure on the cook time sorry! Yes you want to cook until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs it 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Can these be made ahead of time, cooled and then reheated? If so what’s the best way to reheat?
Heya!
Yes absolutely! I’ve done that many times 🙂
Just store the baked, cooled puddings in an airtight container and then I just heat them up in the microwave when ready to serve.
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
If you make it as a cake how long do you cook it
Me and granddaughter made them in the muffin pans and they came and good and were very delicious warm with the toffee sauce
Hi Pamela! So happy to hear you and your granddaughter loved the recipe 😀
If making it as a cake, say an 8 inch cake, it will likely take longer to bake. I’d check around the 28 minute mark and then bake more if needed 🙂
Perfectly fudgy and decedent
Awesome! So glad you loved the pudding Ayesha 😀
Can I make the puddings ahead of time and warm them up?
Yes absolutely! I’ve done that many times 🙂
Just store the baked, cooled puddings in an airtight container and then heat them up when ready to serve.
Hope you enjoy the recipe Janet 🙂
Looks absolutely delicious!! I am definitely going to give this recipe a try. Quick question from your video: Why do you think the second batch of 4 puddings were a different color? Was there a difference in the pan or did they maybe bake a little differently because they were a smaller batch?
Thanks so much Annie 🙂
And great question! I think the difference is that the batter was sitting for a little longer as it was baked after the first batch was finished. The more the baking soda is activated, the darker the color so it could be because of that – baking can be so fascinating sometimes! 🙂
I love receiving your recipes in my email, even if I know I may not attempt a recipe this time. I still keep it in the back of my mind in case I may want to try some day. Thank you for your dedication to teach us all about baking.
The world loves you, MK.
Aww thank you so much for your kind message Tracie! So glad you’re enjoying the recipes and thank you so much for being part of the Cakes by MK community! 😀