A fluffy caramel cloud floating amongst a tuile mountain range. Finally can check this GBBO technical challenge off my list! # 240: Sticky Toffee Pudding

Ok ok, I finally understand the joy of a classic British sticky toffee pudding. A light sponge cake with puréed dates and caramel cascading down the sides. In case your sweet tooth needs a break in this dessert-heavy season, the sesame tuiles are a perfect crunchy bite.

It’s a Prue Leith recipe and predictably has three separate elements you have to keep track of simultaneously. Woof.

Like banana bread, a fruit purée adds lots of moisture and a subtle sweetness.

Before I watched this most recent season of GBBO, I definitely thought it would be more like bread pudding texture. Silly American baker – “pudding” is the word for any British dessert!

Tuiles are thin, crispy cookies that you can roll and shape to your heart’s desire. In this case, there are chopped nuts and sesame seeds mixed in for a fun texture.

It looks like it’ll never come together. . .

You just need Dory’s optimism – just keep stirring, stirring, stirring.

Shaping the dough seems silly since it spreads so much, but hey Dame Prue said to do it, so we do it.

Post oven golden gloriousness.

Make sure to slice them up before they fully cool so you can control the cracks!

I cut the recipe in half and the quantities for caramel felt ridiculously tiny.

Mini caramel! (I ended up re-doing it off camera because this one was paler than I wanted.)

Alert to the universe: Safeway sells pre-chopped dates in their bulk food section! Saved me 15 minutes and a very sticky cutting board.

Immersion blender making a splash.

Cake batter and a Christmas spatula patiently waiting for it’s date (purée) to arrive.

Caramel puddle.

Crossing all my fingers and toes as I pop these in the oven.

Happy lil ramekin muffin cake.

Yesssssss it came out in one piece.

Bring in the tuile!

Trying to get them to balance upright took more time than I’m willing to admit.

Happy munching!

Recipe: https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/prue-leith-sticky-toffee-puddings/