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Sticky Toffee Pudding

A moist, luscious sponge and a rum-spiced sauce make this sticky toffee pudding extra naughty.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,494 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 6 puddings
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease six individual pudding moulds.

  2. Put the dates in a bowl, pour over the boiling water, stir in the bicarbonate of soda and leave for 10 minutes until soft. Blend or mash to a smooth purée.

  3. In a large bowl, beat the soft butter and dark muscovado sugar until pale and fluffy.

  4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the rum and ginger.

  5. Sift the self-raising flour and baking powder over the mixture and fold in gently, alternating with the date purée. Do not overmix.

  6. Divide the batter between the moulds and bake for 25 minutes, until risen and springy and a skewer comes out clean.

  7. While the puddings bake, put the unsalted butter, caster sugar and double cream in a saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves, then simmer for 3 minutes until smooth and glossy.

  8. Turn the warm puddings out onto plates, spoon the sauce over and serve immediately.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Rum + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour, rum, ginger, cream):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Coconutbetter flavor fit
  3. Pineapplebetter flavor fit
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, rum, ginger, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).