Sticky toffee tarts

Sticky toffee tarts

This twist on classic sticky toffee pudding is ideal for a different dinner party dessert

Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

MAKES 6

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 1 hr

Cook time

Cook 45 mins

plus chilling

Method

  1. For the filling, put the chopped dates and milk in a pan. Bring to the boil, then set aside for 30 mins.
  2. To make the pastry, put the butter and flour in a food processor and whizz to fine crumbs. Pulse in the sugar. Mix the vanilla and egg yolk with 1 tbsp water, then dribble in while whizzing, to bring the pastry together. If it doesn't come together, whizz in a trickle more water.
  3. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to line 6 individual deep tart tins with an overhang. Prick the bottoms and chill for 20 mins.
  4. To make the sauce, melt all the ingredients together, then bubble for 2-5 mins until saucy. Cool.
  5. Heat oven to 200C/180C/fan 6. Line each tart case with crumpled baking parchment, add some baking beans and blind-bake for 15 mins. Remove paper and beans, and bake for 5 mins more until biscuity. Trim the pastry edges.
  6. Spoon 1 tbsp of the sauce into each tart case. Mash the reserved date mixture with a potato masher, then tip into a bowl with the softened butter, vanilla, flour, bicarb, almonds, eggs, sugar and treacle. Whisk together with an electric whisk until just combined, then divide between tart cases.
  7. Reduce oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3 and bake for 15 mins. Cool a little before turning out. Serve tarts warm topped with scoops of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with sticky toffee sauce.
Try

SARAH'S TIP FOR PASTRY

This pastry is biscuity and delicious, but as a result, a bit harder to work with. Patch jobs are fine in these little tins, but this pastry won't cook as a large tart. If you're nervous about trying it, just buy 500g sweet shortcrust pasty.

PER SERVING

1256 kcalories, protein 14g, carbohydrate 137g, fat 72 g, saturated fat 42g, fibre 4g, sugar 101g, salt 1.3 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, January 2012.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • Binder photo Suzy

    20 December 2011

    Suzy rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    WOW! I made this for a dinner party on Saturday.It was the star of the evening, everyone raved about it. I served it with Maple Crunch Ice cream and segmented oranges because it is very sweet and I felt it needed a little acidity. It took a little longer to cook in my oven than the recipe said, I also had quite a lot of filling left. I think I will make another couple of tarts and experiment with freezing them. It would be lovely to have some on stand by.

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  • Binder photo Luisa

    01 January 2012

    Luisa rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    I made these yesterday. I make sweet crust pastry fairly often and I made this pastry exactly as described but it was far to moist even after I put it in the fridge for a bit and then added more flour but could not roll it to get it in the tins. I kind of pressed it in the tins in the end. It still worked ok but I don't think I would do it again. The puddings did have a delicious taste but you definitely need a sweet tooth, they were too sweet for my liking unfortunately.

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  • Binder photo FatJasper

    12 January 2012

    FatJasper commented on this recipe

    Lovely lovely recipe. Don't be tempted to add extra water to the pastry, just give it a few extra pulses as the first time I did just that and it was v soft and hard to work with. Second time with no water was better. Either way, the pastry was delicious and made more than enough for my 6 tins so enough to make some random biscuits afterwards. I had too much filling too so am going to bake the rest in a ramekin or two as a bonus pud! Huge hit for Christmas Day dessert. V sweet and needs the ice-cream but v yummy indeed.

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  • Binder photo alexgwatts

    16 January 2012

    alexgwatts commented on this recipe

    Fantastic taste - like Luisa - my pastry was very wet and so next time I will use the egg only and leave out the water to see if that makes a difference. In my fan oven I needed an additional 5 mins to cook them. However once served the room went quiet (highly unusual) and there were clean plates all round! Will definitely add it to my repertoire.

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  • Binder photo Stephanie

    04 February 2012

    Stephanie rated and commented on this recipe

    2 stars

    I made this for a dinner party and it was very delicious in the end. However, there is not enough detail in the recipe. The size of the tart tins is needed (there was a lot of pastry and filling left over when I made it). Also, I needed to know how thick to roll the pastry out. I made three different thicknesses when I used up the left over pastry and the thickest was best. I had to cook it for much longer than stated also and the filling spilled over the top. Not a foolproof recipe for me!

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  • Binder photo My_calcifer

    10 February 2012

    My_calcifer commented on this recipe

    What size tart tins is everyone using? I don't have any so going to buy some for this !

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  • Binder photo MsCupCake

    13 February 2012

    MsCupCake commented on this recipe

    The picture of this is so lovely - but - 1256 calories per serving???? :O I will have to make some adjustments ........

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  • Binder photo MsCupCake

    03 March 2012

    MsCupCake rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    Well, with my adjustments it was still utterly delicious but I was SO full, despite making smaller tarts (10!). I am going to stick to the pudding and sauce though as I think this is plain greedy when it is so high in calories/fat/sugar - really very unhealthy. No real need to add pastry to what is already a dense pudding. imo .......:)

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  • Binder photo Amanda1979

    21 March 2012

    Amanda1979 commented on this recipe

    MsCupCake what were your adjustments please as I am horrified at the thought of 1256 calories and 101g sugar (that is more than my daily allowance!!!) but I would still like to make a variation

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  • Binder photo broadbean

    22 March 2012

    broadbean rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Too much pastry and filling the 1st time I made it.2nd time I rolled it thicker,made 8 tarts and not 6 and still had enough filling left to put into two ramakins and freeze to eat as a yummy pud someother time.also made a few biscuits with the left over pastry.as for the comments about the cals I think it's worth it cos they are the yummiest puds ever!!!(just don't eat them too often!)

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  • Binder photo MsCupCake

    22 March 2012

    MsCupCake commented on this recipe

    Hi Amanda, I just used shortcrust pastry - so reducing fat and sugar - and made them smaller by making 10. No changes to the pud and the sauce. They really do look tidy and attractive BUT I personally think the pastry doesn't add enough to make that extra fat worthwhile. Sticky toffee pudding is yum: I'm going to stick to that (occasionally!)

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Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

MAKES 6

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 1 hr

Cook time

Cook 45 mins

plus chilling

Ingredients

FOR THE PASTRY

  • 200g butter , chopped into cubes
  • 225g plain flour , plus extra for dusting
  • 100g light muscovado sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg yolk

FOR THE SAUCE

  • 200g light muscovado sugar
  • 50g butter
  • 250ml double cream

FOR THE FILLING

  • 250g dates , roughly chopped
  • 200ml milk
  • 50g butter , softened
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 100g plain flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 50g ground almonds
  • 2 large eggs
  • 100g light muscovado sugar
  • 2 tbsp treacle
  • vanilla ice cream , to serve
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PER SERVING

1256 kcalories, protein 14g, carbohydrate 137g, fat 72 g, saturated fat 42g, fibre 4g, sugar 101g, salt 1.3 g

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