I Love Sticky Pudding....Do You??

 Last night we had an unexpected visitor which prompted the preparation of dessert which we do not normally have.  My quick standby, make it in a hurry dessert is Chocolate Sauce N Cake especially when I have a container of ice cream in the freezer like I do now.  But since we have already served that particular dessert to this particular boy.......I decided that I wanted to try the butterscotch version.....another Sauce N Cake that a friend had given me the recipe for.  Due to my sad lack of organization.......this recipe could not be found in time and a quick change of plans was in needed.  I decided to make a recipe I'd tried from epicurious a few years back, that we had liked.  The recipe is for sticky date pudding and I happened to have a package of dates kicking around that needed some serious using up.  Perfect! My DH found the recipe a little lacking in the spice department for his taste so we have increased the amounts ever so slightly from the original.  Do make sure to use very hot water for the water bath or you will find extra baking time is needed.  Either way...bake just until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  In the event that you under cook it.......as I did the first time I made it....all is not lost as you can finish the cooking of each individual serving dish in the microwave.  We serve it warm, with my MIL's Christmas pudding sauce.  It is very rich, very sticky, and very delicious.  If you like things sweet....pour on lots of the sauce:)

Sticky Date Pudding
1 3/4 cups packaged pitted dates (about 10 ounces by weight)
2 cups water
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter, very soft
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, large
Preheat oven to 374F.  Butter and flour an 8 inch square baking pan. Knock out excess flour.
Coarsely chop dates and put them and the 2 cups water in a 2 liter sauce pan to simmer, uncovered for 5 minute.  Remove from heat and add the baking soda which will foam up.  Let mixture stand for 20 minutes while you carry on with the rest of the recipe.
Into a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, ginger, and salt.  In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Add the flour in three batches, beating after each addition. The batter at this point is quite thick.  Add a quarter of the date mixture and beat it into the batter to thin it out.  Add the remaining date mixture and mix just until combined. (In the batch above, I poured the date mixture in all at once and was left with a few lumps of batter not properly mixed in....they look like white spots in the pudding....oops) Pour batter into the prepared pan and set this pan into a larger pan of water so that the water comes up the sides of the cake pan about 1/2 the way up.  (I used a big lasagna pan for the water bath) Put all (carefully so it doesn't spill) into the middle rack of the oven and bake to 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Remove pan from water bath and set on a rack to cool a little bit before serving.  Slice or scoop a serving into a shallow bowl and top with sauce.  Best served warm.

Pudding Sauce
1 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup cream (whipping cream)
1/4 cup butter
Heat butter, cream and sugar in a double boiler.  Once scalded add a few tbsp of the sauce into the beaten eggs and mix.  Then pour the egg mixture into the double boiler while whisking.  You do not want to have strands of cooked egg in this so stir very well.  If you do need to you can strain this mixture when it's all finished.  Cook stirring, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture coats the back of a spoon.  Left over sauce can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator or for longer periods in the freezer....it will never get hard in the freezer.  If you have Christmas cake to use up........try a few spoons of this sauce over a slice of warmed Christmas Cake and it will make it much more edible.