Desserts
Sticky Toffee Pudding
A light, moist sponge made with dates soaked in boiling water and bicarbonate of soda, dark muscovado sugar and a spoonful of black treacle, baked in a tin and soaked in a buttery dark toffee sauce. Serve warm with more sauce and cream, ice cream or custard; it is even better made a day ahead.
- Serves 8
- Serves 8 (20 cm square tin)
- Bakes in 30–35 minutes
- Better made a day ahead
- Freezes well
- British
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C (fan 160°C, gas 4). Butter a 20 cm square cake tin or baking dish (or a 23 × 18 cm dish) and line the base with baking paper.
Put the dates (200 g) in a heatproof bowl, pour over the boiling water (250 ml) and stir in the bicarbonate of soda (1 tsp); it will fizz. Leave for 15 minutes to soften, then mash roughly with a fork (or blitz briefly with a stick blender, leaving a few pieces). Stir in the vanilla (1 tsp).
In a large bowl, beat the butter (75 g) and sugar (150 g) together with a wooden spoon or electric whisk for 2–3 minutes until well mixed; it will stay a little grainy. Beat in the treacle (1 tbsp), then the eggs (2 eggs) a little at a time, adding a spoonful of the flour if it starts to curdle.
Fold in the flour (175 g) and salt (pinch), then stir in the dates and all their liquid. The batter will be very soft, almost runny; that is what makes the pudding light and moist.
Pour into the tin and bake for 30–35 minutes, until risen, springy to the touch and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.
While it bakes, make the sauce. Put the butter (75 g), sugar (150 g) and half the cream (300 ml) in a saucepan over a medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and let it bubble for 3–4 minutes, stirring often, until it darkens to a rich toffee colour. Take it off the heat, whisk in the rest of the cream and the salt (pinch).
When the pudding comes out of the oven, prick it all over with a skewer and pour over about a third of the sauce. Leave for 10 minutes to soak in. For a sticky, bubbling top, slide it under a hot grill for 1–2 minutes, watching closely as it burns easily.
Cut into squares and serve warm with the remaining sauce, reheated, and pouring cream, ice cream or custard (150 ml).
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
See also
Chef’s notes
- Make ahead: the pudding is even better a day or two after baking. Turn it out of the tin, put it in an ovenproof dish, pour over half the sauce, cover loosely with foil and keep in a cool place (or the fridge). Reheat, covered, at 180°C (fan 160°C, gas 4) for 20 minutes until the sauce bubbles.
- Freezing: freeze the pudding in its sauce for up to 2 months; thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat as above. The sauce on its own keeps for a week in the fridge.
- Individual puddings: divide the batter between 8 buttered 200 ml pudding basins or ramekins and bake for 20–25 minutes.
- A deeper flavour: soak the dates in strong black coffee instead of water, as the chefs at Fallow in London do, or add a splash of rum or bourbon to the sauce.
- Medjool dates are softer and sweeter; ordinary dried dates are cheaper and work well once soaked.
Where sticky toffee pudding comes from
Sticky toffee pudding is a modern classic. Writing in The Observer in 2008, Simon Hopkinson traced it to a recipe printed in The Good Food Guide Dinner Party Book of 1971: a date sponge with a hot toffee topping, credited to Mrs Martin, the cook at The Old Rectory in Claughton, Lancashire. He believed it was the original on which later recipes were based.
Francis Coulson of the Sharrow Bay hotel on Ullswater made the pudding famous from the 1970s, serving his own version as “icky sticky toffee sponge”, and it became the signature dessert of the Lake District. Mrs Martin’s son later told Hopkinson that his mother had been given the recipe by a friend from Canada.
Other places claim it too, including the Udny Arms in Aberdeenshire, which said it served the pudding in 1967. The Cartmel Village Shop in Cumbria has made and sold its own sticky toffee puddings since 1984.
Sources: Simon Hopkinson, The Observer, 17 February 2008; Mike MacEacheran, BBC Travel, 2021.
How this recipe was developed
We compared sticky toffee pudding from Gordon Ramsay, the chefs at Fallow (Jack Croft and Will Murray) and Simon Hopkinson with the most-rated versions on BBC Good Food and BBC Food.
- Dates soaked with bicarbonate of soda. Mrs Martin’s original recipe, as printed by Simon Hopkinson, mixes the chopped dates with boiling water, bicarbonate of soda and vanilla, which softens them and helps the sponge rise.
- Dark sugar and treacle. BBC Good Food’s ultimate sticky toffee pudding (4.9/5, 368 ratings) adds black treacle to the sponge and the sauce; Hopkinson uses dark molasses sugar. We use dark muscovado and a spoonful of treacle.
- A loose batter. Hopkinson points out that the mixture is closer to a muffin batter than a British sponge and that careful creaming is not needed. We beat briefly and expect a very soft batter.
- Sauce in two parts. BBC Good Food boils the sugar and butter with half the cream, then beats in the rest; Mary Berry (BBC Food, 4.8/5, 335 ratings) also soaks the pudding in some of the sauce. We pour a third over the hot pudding and serve the rest.
- Coffee and salt. Fallow soaks its dates in strong coffee and seasons the caramel, adding soy sauce; Gordon Ramsay adds bourbon to his toffee sauce. We give coffee and spirits as options and add a pinch of salt to the sauce.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- Gordon Ramsay: Individual Sticky Toffee Puddings
- Fallow (Jack Croft and Will Murray) (Fallow): Michelin Sticky Toffee Pudding at Home (video)
- The Guardian (The Observer) (Simon Hopkinson): Mrs Martin’s moment of genius (2008)
- BBC Good Food (Angela Nilsen): Ultimate sticky toffee pudding (4.9/5, 368 ratings)
- BBC Food (Mary Berry): Mary Berry’s easy sticky toffee pudding (4.8/5, 335 ratings)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.