Sticky date puddings is one of my favourite desserts – I love the moist texture of the cake coupled with that sinful salted caramel sauce. I could never bring myself to make the pudding without some healthy alternations to the recipe. The problem that I have with stick date puddings is that it tend to be way too sweet! Dates are nutritious fruits packed with lots of vitamins, fibre and natural sugars – there is no need to add unnecessary sugar this delicious fruit. So let’s try to reduce that spoonful of sugar!

Nutrition per pudding (without the salted caramel sauce)

 

Ingredients for the pudding:

1. 250g whole Medjool dates
2. 175ml boiling water
3. 1 tsp vanilla extract
4. 175g self-raising flour
5. 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
6. 2 eggs
7. 80g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
8. 80g brown sugar
9. 3 table spoon vanilla yoghurt

Ingredients for the salted caramel sauce:

1. 150g caster sugar
2. 40ml water
3. 100g double cream
4. 10g butter
5. 1 tsp salt
6. 0.5 tsp vanilla essence

Directions

Preparation time: 1 hour
Baking time: 20 – 25 min (or when the pudding turn brown)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Prepare a 12 case muffin pan
3. Pour 175ml of boiling hot water into the dates and let it soak for 30 minutes
4. Once the dates have softened, use a fork to mash it up
5. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
6. Add two eggs into the mixture and continue to whisk
7. Add in three tablespoons of vanilla yoghurt and continue creaming
8. Fold in the flour and bicarbonate soda and mix until a uniform mixture forms
9. Fold in the dates
10. Spread it evenly across 12 muffin trays and place it in the oven to bake for 20min or when it turns brown

To make the salted caramel sauce

1. While the pudding is cooling, Dissolve 150g of caster sugar into 40ml water
2. Place it in a cooking pan and heat it over a small flame until the mixture turns golden brown – takes about 4 to 5min
3. Remove it from the heat and add in the double cream, vanilla essence, butter and salt. Mix it well.
4. Leave it to cool

Once ready, drizzle the salted caramel sauce over the sticky date pudding and serve it with vanilla ice cream! Yum!