Sticky Toffee Pudding #recipe from @MysteryMacRae

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding is easy to make and tastes absolutely luxurious. I’d never eaten it before a week or so ago, but have always loved the sound of it, so I wrote it into Thistles and Thieves, book 3 in my Highland Bookshop Mystery series. Good food is mentioned in those books, but there aren’t any recipes included.

There are a number of recipes for Sticky Toffee Pudding out there. I tried one from Mark Bittman, which was very good. Then I tried one from Coinneach Macleod, the Hebridean Baker, and WOW! Everyone in the house agrees that it’s groaningly superb. We also think it looks better on the plate because it’s made in individual portions (in a muffin tin) rather than as a sheet cake.

We were thorough in testing this recipe for you. We tried it warm from the oven. WOW! We tried it at room temperature. WOW! We tried it re-warmed in the microwave. WOW! I hope your mileage doesn’t vary.

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding

(adapted from The Hebridean Baker: Recipes and Wee Stories from the Scottish Islands)

 

 

Ingredients for the pudding

I used the metric measures but have included approximate equivalents.

200g (2 cups) pitted dates

200ml (.845 cup – I know, weird. It’s between ¾ and 1 cup) hot black tea

1 teaspoon baking soda

80g (5 ¾ tablespoons) butter

2 tablespoons molasses

50g (¼ cup) brown sugar (I used dark brown. Light would be fine.)

2 eggs

150g (1 ¼ cups) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

 

Ingredients for the sauce

150g (10 ½ tablespoons) butter

300g (1 ¾ cups) brown sugar

1 tablespoon molasses

200ml (.845 cup) heavy whipping cream

 

 Directions for pudding

Chop dates into small bowl, pour black tea over them, stir in baking soda, and let sit for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325.

Cream butter and molasses together. Add sugar, eggs, flour, and baking powder. Mix well.

When dates and tea have cooled, mash the dates into the tea, then stir into batter.

Spoon batter evenly in greased muffin tin. Bake 20 minutes – until risen and firm.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes.

 

Directions for sauce

In a saucepan over medium low heat, stir and melt butter, sugar, and molasses. Simmer, stirring, until sugar is dissolved.

Turn up the heat and let the mixture bubble for a few minutes to create a toffee-colored sauce.

Remove from heat and stir in cream.

 

To  serve

Put one of the puddings upside down in a bowl. Pour or spoon sauce over the pudding. Wait for the WOWs (while gobbling yours so no one else grabs it).

 

Something poisonous is coming March 1, 2022!

 

About Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries:

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

Available for pre-order in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

Celebrate! Elegant Date #Cake with Sticky Toffee Sauce #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: My turn to dance around shouting "celebrate! celebrate!" (I'm the one waving purple orchids...) I have to pack in a lot today: a recipe, an update on our wonderful friend and writer Jenn McKinlay, and an explanation of the double contest. So don't quit reading early!

I was a later addition to Mystery Lovers Kitchen, appearing first as a guest in 2011 with one of my favorite summer dishes, the leaning tower of eggplant. I was thrilled to be invited as a full-timer. It's a lot of work, of course, but I love this community so much. And I've become a more inventive, accomplished cook, besides writing all the foodie mysteries.



And now for the cake...I tasted this cake during our trip to Japan and have been meaning to make it ever since. I did see an Ina Garton recipe that I think called for three sticks of butter--but I wanted us to be able to move on the dance floor, so here's my pared-down, elegant and luscious version of date cake. But whatever you do, don't skip the caramel sauce!

Ingredients

3/4 cups pitted, quartered dates
3/4 cups water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

 
For Sticky Toffee Sauce:
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, place the dates, water and vanilla and bring to a boil. Simmer until soft (might take 5 minutes.) Remove from the heat, add the baking soda, mix well. Let the mixture cool. Meanwhile... 
Cream butter with sugars. Beat in the eggs. Add the dry ingredients, and finally the cooled date mixture. (Do not worry about leaving little chunks of dates--they will provide some nice texture.) Pour the batter into a well-buttered cake pan. (I also added a layer of parchment paper and buttered that for good measure.) Bake at 350 about 40-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn the cake out onto a platter. 

For the sauce, mix brown sugar, cream, butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer until thick, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and add a splash of vanilla. 






Poke holes in the cake and pour the sauce overall. 









Serve warm if possible. 











Even better, serve with homemade whipped cream--this is a party after all!

And now an update from the incomparable Jenn McKinlay:

I'm still chugging along on my three series for Berkley Prime Crime -- Library Lover's, London Hat Shop, and Cupcake Bakery mysteries.  I'm finishing my other series the Good Buy Girls written under the name Josie Belle and have no idea what's next.  I like to follow the uncharted course.

WHAT A CATCH is one of my fave posts, probably, because I am hankering for some fried catfish right now:
 
When my next door neighbor was painting
his living room, he asked my husband if he
would babysit, or rather fish-sit, his fish of
unknown origin for him until the room wasdone. That was a year and a half ago and
the fish of unknown origin is still living on top
of our piano, blowing bubbles and wavinghis fins at me. Read the post here
 
Oh, and in a related update, we still have the neighbor's catfish.  He continues to blow bubbles and wave his fins at me.  The neighbor has moved to Pennsylvania, so I don't think I'm going to be returning Kevin (yes, we named the fish after the neighbor) any time soon.  It's okay.  I've grown quite fond of Kevin, but if you tell the Hub or hooligans I said that I will deny it.

I was such a newbie when I started writing mysteries.  I didn't belong to any groups or organizations. I'd never done the conference thing.  When Krista Davis asked me to join the blog, it was my first connection to any other mystery writers.  They were all so generous and kind with their information and encouragement and their recipes, that I really felt like we were all hanging out in a big kitchen, sharing food and snippets about our lives.  
 

Now for the contests! #1 Leave a comment here today telling us what you'd serve at a celebration and you'll be entered in a drawing to win the Key West mystery of your choice. Don't forget to leave your email and which book you'd like...

#2 Go to this link to enter the photo contest, which runs until July 24. Prizes are these fabulous bags and books from each of us at MLK!

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