Spiced date and pecan nut pudding

This gorgeous dessert is straight out of this month’s issue of PnP’s Freshliving magazine, and oh what a decadent treat it is for the cold days that are still ahead!

I don’t get to shoot much these days, it however feels amazing to be back behind the lens and it feels like second nature to me. There is no better reminder of your passion than to constantly put it to practice. This I am glad I made the time for. We all need reminders of what we love doing or what we are good at when times are turbulent.

This dessert is a spectacular as a hearty addition to any Sunday lunch or dinner for that matter. I love that the flavour reminds me of Cinnabon, especially with the caramel sauce I added, crushed pecan nuts and subtle notes of cinnamon. Eat with caution should certainly be the caveat that should accompany this dessert.

I wanted to serve this dessert with a molten, salty, dripping caramel sauce to complement the nutty sweet flavours of this pud. I improvised and made a smokey salted buttermilk butterscotch sauce to drench the pud with. Butter being the key in this recipe 🙂 butter indeed does make everything taste so much better!

Spiced Date and Pecan nut pudding with a salted buttermilk butterscotch sauce. 

Ingredients:
– 150g Medjool dates

– 100g Butter, melted.

– 250ml Milk

– 2 free-range eggs

– 8ml vanilla extract

– 125g caster sugar

– 3ml salt

– 300g self-raising flour

– 50g pecan nuts, chopped

– 10ml cinnamon

– 5ml ground ginger

– 5ml ground cardamom

– 250ml sugar

– 310ml boiling water

– 60ml sherry or clemengold mandarin juice (I used a combination of both)

– Smokey salted buttermilk butterscotch sauce to serve.
Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease any dish. I used a Bundt mold.

Whisk eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Using my NutriBullet or you could use any other blender, blitz half of the dates together with the melted butter until a paste-like consistency is achieved. Roughly chop the rest of dates, I did this for extra texture in the pud. Add this to the date paste.

Add the date mixture, milk, vanilla extract to the egg mixture. Combine the flour, salt, nuts and spices together then fold into the egg mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin or dish, sprinkle over brown sugar evenly over the batter.
To make the topping: 

Mix together the water and sherry/mandarin or orange juice, pour over the back of a spoon to cover the pudding. Bake the pudding for 35 minutes or until just cooked. Serve with cream and the salted buttermilk butterscotch sauce drizzled over.