Gluten free sticky date pudding
Egg free, nut free, xanthan gum free *This recipe uses Australian cups and measures. Use gram weights for international accuracy.
Equipment
- 1 20cm X 20cm square brownie/cake tin or 8 to 9 1/3 cup* (80ml) capacity muffin holes
Ingredients
For the dates:
- 250 g regular pitted dates
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (also called bicarb soda)
- 180ml (3/4 cup)* boiling water
- 80ml (1/3 cup)* ginger lemon kombucha or extra boiling water
To finish the pudding:
- 120-140 g fine white rice flour (see notes)
- 75 g tapioca flour
- 5g (1 teaspoon)* baking powder
- 100 g light brown sugar
- 100 g butter melted (salted or unsalted)
For the butterscotch sauce
- 100 g butter (salted or unsalted)
- 150 g light brown sugar
- 250 ml (1 cup)* pouring cream, lactose free if needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/356F. Grease and line a 20cm X 20cm square cake tin/brownie pan or 8-9 X 1/3 cup* (80ml) capacity muffin holes or ramekins.
- Finely chop the dates and add them to a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle over the baking soda then pour over the boiling water. Stir to combine then set aside for 10 minutes. Once the 10 minutes is up, stir in the kombucha or extra boiling water.
- Add the remaining pudding ingredients to the bowl of dates and stir thoroughly to combine. The batter should lighten and become slightly fluffy looking. Pour it into your greased tin or moulds and bake for 18-20 minutes for individual puddings or 25-30 minutes for one large pudding made in a brownie pan/cake tin.
- While the pudding is baking, make the butterscotch sauce. Place the butter in the saucepan over a medium heat. Cook until it browns and becomes fragrant and nutty. Add the brown sugar and cream and whisk thoroughly to combine. Cook for 3-5 minutes until the sauce comes together. It should be smooth looking, slightly thicker in texture and viscous. Remove from the heat and add a pinch of salt to taste.
- Once the pudding has cooked, use a skewer to poke holes across the top of the pudding. These will allow the sauce to seep into the cake.
- Pour about half of the sauce over the pudding and allow it to seep into the pudding for 5-10 minutes.
- Slice and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and extra butterscotch sauce.
Notes
- I find it better to err on the side of over-baking this pudding. The top might look thoroughly cooked, but it contains lots of dates and liquid. I generally cook it for the full 30 minutes when making one large pudding, but every oven is different.
- If you prefer a dense and fudgy pudding, use less rice flour. If you prefer a slightly taller and cakier pudding, use more rice rice flour.
- If you are making individual puddings in a muffin tin, I recommend just slightly under-filling them so they don't come out with a muffin lip. This is purely for aesthetics and to hide the fact that it is an upside down muffin, so totally optional.
- If you are making individual puddings in a muffin tin, bake the puddings for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown on top and firm to the touch. You can poke 3-5 skewer holes in the puddings and drizzle the butterscotch sauce on top (about 2-3 teaspoons per pudding). Alternatively, you can allow them to cool and invert the puddings before poking the holes and drizzling over the butterscotch sauce.
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