If you’re ever looking for a warming cold weather dessert, then you have to make this apple pear sticky toffee pudding. We took the classic sticky toffee pudding, then added a slight seasonal twist on it with the addition of the apples and pears. A delicious homemade caramel sauce then gets poured all over. Serve warm and with vanilla ice cream!
Ingredients
- 1 apple, core removed and cut into cubes
- 1 pear, core removed and cut into cubes
- Squeeze of lemon juice
- knob of butter
- 200g pitted dates
- 100ml brandy
- 50ml orange juice
- 170g butter, room temperature
- 340g all-purpose flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- 130g brown sugar
- 110g granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
Caramel Sauce
- 100g granulated sugar
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 80g unsalted butter, cubed
- pinch of flakey sea salt
- handful of chopped pecans
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a saucepan melt the knob of butter and combine with the apple, pear, and squeeze of lemon juice. Leave on the heat, stirring occasionally until the fruit has softened.
- In the meantime, add the dates to a food processor. In a bowl, combine the brandy and orange juice then pour on top of the dates. Let soak until the apple and pear mixture is ready.
- Blitz the dates until relatively smooth, then add in the apple and pear mixture. Blitz again until fully combined. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, then mix in the cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Add the room temperature butter to a bowl and cream together with both sugars. You can either use a large wooden spoon to do this or an electric mixer. Once you have a pale brown creamy mixture, mix in the eggs until fully combined. Gradually add in the flour and fold into the mixture. Do the same with the baking powder. Finally, stir in the date and fruit mixture until fully combined.
- Lightly butter and flour an 8″ square pan, then pour in the batter. Use a spoon to evenly spread the batter. Bake in the oven for approximately 45 – 50 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.
- When the pudding is almost ready, make the sauce. In a pan on medium heat, add the cubed butter and melt. Add the sugar, then once it is melted, very carefully and slowly add the cream. Keep stirring until you’re left with a deep golden colour. Top with flakey sea salt.
- As soon as the pudding is out of the oven, poke small holes in the top of the sponge, then pour over the caramel sauce. Top with the chopped pecans and serve with ice-cream, if you like.
