Delicious pudding that the whole family will love!

Ingredients

• 1½ cups chopped dried dates
• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• 175 grams butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1½ cups self-raising flour
• Sauce
• 125 grams butter
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup cream
• ¾ cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Grease and flour a 23cm ring tin.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the dates, water, coffee, vanilla essence and baking soda. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.
3. Beat the softened butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs.
4. Carefully stir the flour into the creamed mixture with the date mix. The batter should be quite sloppy.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Stand in the tin while preparing the sauce.
7. For the sauce, put the butter, sugar, cream and pecans or walnuts into a saucepan and simmer together for 5 minutes.
8. Turn the pudding out onto a serving place and serve in thick slices with plenty of sauce to accompany and scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Cooks Tips

Pecans contain around 70% fat - no doubt this is why the are so delicious - so buy where there is plenty of turnover as they become rancid quickly in warm areas like factories and pantries.