STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING IS BACK!
It's not often that Chef Tracey gives her recipes away, but this one appeared in our Holiday Book of Recipes in 2010 and so I didn't think I'd be giving away the farm if I posted it one more time:

CHEF TRACEY'S STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour an 8 inch square baking pan (2 inches deep), knocking out excess flour. In a 2 quart saucepan, simmer dates in water (uncovered) for 5 minutes. Remove pan from the heat and stir in baking soda. (Mixture will foam.) Let mixture stand at room temp for 20 minutes. In a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, ginger & salt. In a stand mixer beat together butter & sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, beating after each addition until just combined. Add date mixture with a spatula and stir batter until combined. Pour batter into baking pan. Set pan into a larger baking pan and add enough hot water to reach halfway up the sides of the smaller pan. (This water bath insulates the cake so that it doesn’t heat up too quickly, causing the center to rise & crack.) Bake in middle of the oven until tester comes out clean, about 35 to 40 minutes. Remove pan from water bath & set on a rack to cool. To make the sauce, melt the butter in a 2 quart saucepan over moderate heat. Add the brown sugar and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Stir in cream & vanilla. Simmer sauce until thickened slightly, about 5 minutes.  Then serve warm pudding with warm sauce over it. I like to garnish with brandy whipped cream or the ice cream of your choice.

If you decide that's just too darn much work, head on in to Portalis, warm up, & enjoy the Sticky Toffe Pudding paired with Smith Woodhouse 1994 Colheita Tawny Port.

Cheers!
Julie

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Chef Tracey Stoner Crannell  Chef Tracey trained at the Baltimore International Culinary College and has been chef at restaurants from Captiva Island, Florida, to Nashville to Seattle.  But the bigger the kitchen, the further removed the chef gets from actually preparing the food that you eat.  When she joined the Portalis Wine Bar team in September 2007, she returned to her basic love of cooking in what her chef husband calls her “dollhouse” kitchen.  There she took on the task of expanding our menu so that our customers would view us as a place to eat dinner while drinking their delicious glass of wine instead of just a place to have a snack.  She has exceeded our expectations … and we think our customers’ as well.