Pecan Smoked Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe
By Nicola Lando
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30 minutes prep time
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30 minutes cook time
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Intermediate
This twist on the classic sticky toffee pudding perfectly balances sweetness with smokiness. We've used pecan liquid smoke to create a tangy, outdoor smoky flavour with a hint of nuttiness. Just a few drops of liquid smoke transform the sticky toffee sauce with a sweet-spicy smoke flavour.
The dessert is irresistible on its own, but for some extra indulgence serve with a drizzle of double cream or vanilla ice cream. The ultimate in comforting winter desserts - this smoked sticky toffee pudding is best served after a night of fireworks, bonfires and outdoor fun. The sauce and sticky toffee puddings can be cooked a few hours in advance. Reheat the puddings in a warm oven, and the sauce on the hob just before serving.
You can also cook the puddings as a steamed pudding in one large pudding basin. Instead of the individual pudding moulds, grease and pour into a large pudding basin. Prepare the pudding for steaming with the help of this video, and steam for 4-5 hours until a skewer comes out clean (approx 2 hours in a pressure cooker) or a thermometer reads over 80 degrees Centigrade. The pudding can be cooked in advance and warmed through in a medium oven before serving.
For added theatre, pour a little rum over the pudding and light it to 'flame' just before serving. Serve the sauce separately from a jug at the table.
For the sticky toffee puddings Serves: 8
- 250g dates, stoned and roughly chopped
- 150ml boiling water
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 75g caster sugar
- 100g muscovado sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla paste
- 3 eggs
- 175g self raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
- 75g pecans, roughly chopped (optional)
For the pecan liquid smoke toffee sauce
- 220g double cream
- 150g light brown sugar
- 75g unsalted butter, and a little extra for greasing
- Pinch of salt 3-4 tsp pecan liquid smoke
Equipment
- 8 individual pudding basins or dariole moulds
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C/350F/Gas 4 and grease the moulds with a little butter or vegetable oil.
- To prepare the batter, begin by soaking the dates in 150ml boiling water.
- Cream together the butter, caster sugar, muscovado sugar and vanilla paste. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
- Fold in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Strain the dates, and stir the dates and half the chopped pecans into the batter mixture. Combine well.
- Pour the batter into the greased moulds, and fill to within 2 cm of the top of the moulds.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until firm to the touch.
- Whilst the puddings bake, make the sauce. Heat the cream, sugar, butter and salt in a heavy-bottomed pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in 3tsp liquid smoke. Taste and add a further teaspoon if required.
- To turn the puddings out onto plates, gently run a knife around the edge of each one and turn out. Pour over the toffee sauce and a sprinkling of chopped pecans.
About the author
Nicola is co-founder and CEO at Sous Chef. She has worked in food for over ten years.
Nicola first explored cooking as a career when training at Leiths, before spending the next decade in Finance. However... after a stage as a chef at a London Michelin-starred restaurant, Nicola saw the incredible ingredients available only to chefs. And wanted access to them herself. So Sous Chef was born.
Today, Nicola is ingredients buyer and a recipe writer at Sous Chef. She frequently travels internationally to food fairs, and to meet producers. Her cookbook library is vast, and her knowledge of the storecupboard is unrivalled. She tastes thousands of ingredients every year, to select only the best to stock at Sous Chef.
Nicola shares her knowledge of ingredients and writes recipes to showcase those products. Learning from Sous Chef's suppliers and her travels, Nicola writes many of the recipes on the Sous Chef website. Nicola's recipes are big on flavour, where the ingredients truly shine (although that's from someone who cooks for hours each day - so they're rarely tray-bakes!).
