"So sweet the place," we said, "Its tacit tales so dear, Our thoughts, when breath has sped, Will meet and mingle here!"...
DJ had a birthday yesterday, and it passed quietly with little fanfare. Our parents showered him with gifts, and I bought him knives and Heath bars and bourbon. Last year we had a party, but the house is in disorder (due, in part, to jet lag) and he had to work most of the day, so this year our celebration was private.
While he was working, however, Mom and I went shopping for presents, tile and dates. Following a hint from the owner of Gourmet Gadgetrie (a local shop that is far too addictive), I found fresh dates at Sam's - hooray! The ingredient list for Sticky Toffee Pudding was at last complete (Priscilla is kindly sending some from Abu Dhabi, and I thought his birthday treat would have to be late).
We had steaks for grilling, but I thought I should start the rather labor-intensive pudding first. I had researched (using the internet) and decided the best possible recipe would be Kate Middleton's favorite. So I pitted and chopped the dates, poured boiling water over them so they could expand, and set about making the batter. The butter and brown sugar were easy to mix in the KitchenAid, and the eggs were no trouble either. The addition of the black treacle was a bit tricky, however. Not shockingly, it's super sticky - so getting it into the mixing bowl, not just around the sides was tough. (I special ordered the Lyle's Black Treacle and Golden Syrup, as well as the Devon Double Cream, from Amazon.) The Lyle's Golden Syrup, the vanilla and the flour were no problem. Our KitchenAid (thanks Mom and Pop!) took the whole sticky mess in stride. The food processor was a little trickier to manage, but DJ solved the problem before I could even get the instructions open (whew!) and I quickly pureed the dates and water. I poured that into the KitchenAid bowl with the batter, along with some baking powder, and viola! Within a couple of minutes, perfect batter. I poured it into a buttered and floured clever little pan Sarah got us (the recipe says a 9x9 square, but it worked perfectly) and popped it in the oven.
I was about to start the sauce, but DJ distracted me for an hour or so (don't worry, I took the pudding out in time), so I didn't get back to it right away. Once I got back to the sauce, I realized one of the problems with the steak pie I made (DJ whipped one up last Friday that was delicious, but that is his tale to tell) is that I am not nearly patient enough with a thickening sauce. The butter and sugar took at least half an hour to caramelize and after the addition of the Devon Double Cream, the sauce still took 20 minutes to thicken properly. That's a lot of standing and stirring, folks! On the upside the new saucepan from Clayton and Pamela worked wonderfully - not a scorched spot - the new spatula from Katie and Michael was perfect and I think I finally have a feel for the temperature settings on the new stove from Sam and Shelly. (As an aside, I did finally make the $15 cake mix from Williams-Sonoma to accompany DJ's Steak & Ale Pie last Friday - the consensus, Laurie, is that it is probably worth it. The cake was moist and airy like a really good cake donut.)
I poured the sauce over an individual pudding for DJ and one for myself and pronounced it delicious! DJ had a second and we decided that meat was overrated if you could have pudding instead.
Next up: Chocolate Sticky Pudding, House Painting, Bison Stalking, and Job Hunting.
More communications to follow...
No comments:
Post a Comment