Double Chocolate Sticky Date Pudding

The only thing better than a sticky date pudding is a sticky date pudding with a double dose of chocolate. Spring is starting to set in and it’s filling my life with many new excitements. Spring for me, is the time to take a good look at life and remark ‘Yes, it’s time to detox..its time for change!’. Normally what people would do at the start of New Year. Somehow leaving winter behind gives me a burst of energy. I wake up with a list of things to do pretty much every morning. One of the resolutions I had made for this Spring was to improve my photography and pick up some new skills. I have been working hard in doing so. If you follow me on Instagram, you would know that I was very excited when I shared my first ever ‘pour shot’ recently. As a lover of all things sweet, nothing spells ‘food porn’ to me than a sauce dripping dessert.  I chose the sticky date pudding with chocolate chips to be the subject of my pour. Again, raising the bar to my creativity is one more journey I have embarked on. I have to admit, I have always been a bit fearless in the kitchen. It is a very spontaneous thing for me. Rarely have I entered the kitchen with a fixed outcome in mind or followed a recipe to the T. This time around I have decided to fuel this passion and try my hand at as many things as possible. You may get to see a lot of pouring, drizzling, sprinkling and such on the blog in future.

 

The sticky date pudding is such a gorgeous thing to share with friends and family. Especially on a special get-together when comfort and pleasure over-rides any form of calorie induced guilt. I wanted to make the pudding a centrepiece. There is already a recipe for individual sticky date puddings in my blog archives which is quite luscious with a butterscotch sauce. But chocolate is different, it just  works with everything. It gives an extra oomph to anything and everything. This version of the pudding has chocolate chips and toasted walnuts inside the batter, on top and dressed up in a rich, bittersweet chocolate sauce. Frankly, there is no major innovation in this, just that you want to convince yourself if you really want to play around with a dessert that is already so beautiful to taste and look at. Yes, you want to! Trust me, you will love to eat it and share it.

If this is the first time you are going to make a sticky date pudding, there is very little date-like taste in your mouth. I know quite a few people who don’t enjoy dates in desserts. This is far from being chewy or munchy and all the textures you associate with dates. The dates are broken down right at the start and what you get is actually a rich caramel like sauce that flavours the pudding. You can make this recipe in 8 individual cups instead of one large. As you can see, the pudding holds shape beautifully, almost like a cake. It is very gooey inside however and the centre might sink a tad bit. Which actually formed the base to catch my chocolate sauce during the shoot. I could not take pictures of the insides like I normally do as I was jumping with excitement when I blew up the image on my screen. I wish I could show you the number of images I had with sauce hanging in mid-air and of course the blurry ones. Kind of spooky!
We just had to celebrate and all we wanted was a mouthful of the Sticky date pudding.

 

 

Double Chocolate Sticky Date Pudding
Serves 8

180g dates, pitted and roughly chopped
1 1/4 cups (310ml) water
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter, softened chopped
2 eggs
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup toasted walnuts

For the dark chocolate sauce
100g dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup pouring/single cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees C fan-forced). Lightly grease an 18 cm round cake pan and line base with baking paper.. Place dates and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a high heat. Remove from the heat. Add bicarbonate of soda, stir until dates start to break down, set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.               
Place the chocolate chips, walnuts and flour together in a bowl. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl using a hand beater, gradually add eggs one at a time, beat until light and fluffy. Add date mixture, stir to combine. Carefully fold through the flour and chocolate chip mixture, pour into prepared cake pan. 

Place cake in a baking tray, carefully pour water in tray until it comes up 1/3 of the sides of the pan. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until golden and skewer comes out clean. Leave in pan for 10 minutes. then carefully turn out pudding onto a serving plate or tray. Serve warm with Chocolate Sauce, extra chocolate chips and toasted walnuts.

Make the Dark Chocolate Sauce :  Combine chocolate, cream and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool. To store, pour into a cup/jar, cover and store in the refrigerator till needed. Warm up before using.