Toffee Sticky Pudding from a Vermont Kitchen

Toffee Sticky Pudding, also known as Sticky Toffee Pudding, is a steamed or baked dessert consisting of a moist sponge cake made with dates, topped with a warm toffee sauce and finished with a cloud of whipped cream.
By Carol Egbert

A recent trip to England reminded me that America and England may have a common language but there are times when we don’t understand each other. I know that a lift is an elevator, a flat is an apartment, and although lorry may be a momentarily confusing term for a truck, those differences are inconsequential, compared to what I found on British dessert menus and in cookery books.

There are many desserts, called puddings in Britain, with names that are charming and inscrutable enough to require translation. Here’s my guide to British Puddings:

Cabinet Pudding or Chancellor’s Pudding – This traditional steamed, molded pudding, made from a combination of bread or sponge cake and dried fruits, is usually served with a sweet custard sauce.

Clootie Dumpling – Dumplings made with flour, breadcrumbs, raisins or currants, suet, sugar, spice, milk and, sometimes, golden syrup. The dough is wrapped in a floured cloth, placed in a large pan of boiling water and simmered for a couple of hours before being lifted out and dried in front of a fire.

Duff – A steamed pudding, traditionally served on Christmas Day, it originated in medieval England and is also known as plum pudding or plum duff.

Figgy Duff – It resembles white Christmas pudding but contains figs. It may be baked, steamed, boiled or fried and is known primarily because of the familiar request, “Now bring us some figgy pudding,” in a Christmas carol.

Jam Roly-Poly, Dead Man’s Arm, and Dead Man’s Leg are all names for a traditional dessert invented in the early 19th century. It is a flat, suet pudding, spread with jam, rolled up like a jellyroll and steamed. It is called Shirtsleeve Pudding when steamed in a shirtsleeve rather than a pudding bag.

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Spotted Dick –A steamed, suet pudding, containing dried fruit, usually currants, commonly served with custard. Spotted refers to the dry fruit and Dick may be a corruption of the last syllable of the word pudding or a corruption of the word dough. This sweet treat is also known as Spotted Dog.

Sussex Pond Pudding – A rich dessert made by encasing whole lemons, butter and sugar in a wrapper of suet pastry. It is either boiled or steamed for several hours. If currants are added, this dessert is known as Kentish Puddle Pudding or Kentish Well Pudding.

Toffee Sticky Pudding, also known as Sticky Toffee Pudding, is a steamed or baked dessert consisting of a moist sponge cake made with dates, topped with a warm toffee sauce and finished with a cloud of whipped cream. It is my favorite pudding because I can remember its name, make it in an oven without using a shirtsleeve or any other strange equipment, and suet isn’t an ingredient. I made it on Sunday to share with six friends for Charles’ early birthday celebration. Here’s a recipe for the cake and a second recipe for the toffee sauce that makes it a sticky pudding: