Vegan Sticky Toffee Pudding is a type of dessert that is sure to be enjoyed by vegans and non-vegans alike. Light and moist date-based sponge is soaked in homemade coconut caramel sauce and served with a scoop of dairy-free ice-cream. Classic English dessert gets a vegan makeover, no one would even expect it's healthy.
I remember the first time I made English Sticky Toffee Pudding. It was just what the title says - sticky, moist, flavorful and outrageously delicious.
But since I started a plant-based diet, there's been a problem - I can't really eat my favorite desserts no more, since eggs and dairy are "no-no" ingredients.
Fortunately, most of the sweet treats that I used to love are still possible on a vegan diet. With a few simple substitutions, I'm capable of turning a non-vegan dessert into a dessert free from eggs and dairy.
This Vegan Sticky Date Pudding is not an exception. I made a few tweaks to my original recipe and baked a super delicious and moist dessert worths repeating over and over again.
🥘 Ingredients
- dates - if possible, buy pitted dates. It will shorten the preparation time. It doesn't matter what type of dates you use: Medjool Dates or Noor Dates will all work well in this dessert
- boiling water - to soften those dates
- brown sugar. I used specifically brown sugar, because it also contains a molasses which makes desserts more moist. That being said, you can absolute substitute with coconut sugar
- flour - in this dessert I used all-purpose flour
- sparkling water is used in place of an egg
- neutral oil - like grape seed or refined coconut oil. That being said, if you have only olive oil, go for it. Your puddings will likely have a mild olive oil taste, which I don't see as a problem
- leavening agents - baking powder and baking soda
- cooking spray and cocoa powder - for greasing and dusting the muffin tin cavities. These are the optional ingredients and an optional step. However, I prefer when puddings comes out dark brown on the sides and cacao powder helps in achieving this effect
- coconut cream or milk - for the caramel
🔪 Instructions
1. Soften the dates
Give dates a rough chop and add them to a bowl. Pour boiling water over the dates, sprinkle with baking soda, mix well and leave dates to soften, about 15 minutes. To a bowl of food processor add softened dates and all water and process until pureed.
2. Combine dry ingredients
In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Combine liquid ingredients
In a large bowl combine sugar, sparkling water and oil. Add dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients and mix to combine. Add pureed dates and mix again. Stop mixing when all ingredients are incorporated. Don't overmix.
4. Spoon the batter into muffin tin cavities and bake
Grease muffin tin cavities with vegan butter or cooking spray and lightly dust with cacao powder. Divide the batter equally among 9 muffin tin cavities, cover with a foil and bake for 25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
5. Make Caramel Sauce
Put a small pot on a high heat, add sugar and coconut cream. Stir until sugar dissolves, reduce the heat to low and cook until caramel slightly thickens, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat. As the caramel cools, it will harden.
6. Serve
Put a scoop of dairy-free ice-cream on a pudding and top with a warm caramel sauce.
🥘 Storing And Reheating
These easy vegan sticky toffee puddings can be stored on a counter for 4 days. Simply place them in a sealed container lined with a paper towel.
As for the caramel sauce, let it cool to a room temperature and then store in a glass container in a fridge for up to 1 months.
💭 Top tip
If your caramel sauce gets too thick in a refrigerator, simply reheat it in a microwave for 5 to 10 seconds.
🥘 Similar Recipes
If you're looking for a quick overview of the recipe, please check out my Sticky Toffee Pudding web-story.
📖 Recipe
Vegan Sticky Toffee Pudding
Ingredients
For the pudding
- 6 oz dates pitted and roughly chopped
- ⅔ c boiling water
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ⅓ c flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ c sparkling water
- ⅔ c brown sugar
- ¼ c neutral oil such as grape seed oil
For the caramel sauce
- 1 c coconut cream
- ¾ c brown sugar
Instructions
Soften the dates
- Preheat the oven to 355 F. Spray muffin tin cavities with a cooking spray and lightly dust with a cacao powder.
- Give dates a rough chop and add them to a bowl. Pour boiling water over the dates, sprinkle with baking soda, mix well and leave dates to soften, about 15 minutes. To a bowl of food processor add softened dates and all water and process until pureed.
Combine dry ingredients
- In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
Combine liquid ingredients
- In a large bowl combine sugar, sparkling water and oil. Add dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients and mix to combine. Add pureed dates and mix again. Stop mixing when all ingredients are incorporated. Don’t overmix.
Spoon the batter into muffin tin cavities and bake
- Divide the batter equally among 9 muffin tin cavities, cover with a foil and bake for 25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
Make Caramel Sauce
- Put a small pot on a high heat, add sugar and coconut cream. Stir until sugar dissolves, reduce the heat to low and cook until caramel slightly thickens, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat. As the caramel cools, it will harden.
Serve
- Put a scoop of dairy-free ice-cream on a pudding and top with a warm caramel sauce.
Sandra says
I made his but they ended up really dry what did I do wrong????
Iryna says
Hi Sandra, sorry the pudding came out dry. One reason for this could be because the oven temperatures vary and so the oven could get too hot even though you set the temperature that I indicated in the recipe. Another thing worths mentioning is that the pudding itself is rather plain-tasting and it should be consumed with a generous drizzle of the caramel sauce. It should almost be soaked in caramel. Many people even make a few holes in the pudding and then spoon the caramel on top so that it went right into those holes and make a pudding moist and delicious.
Anyways, I'm gonna give this recipe another try to see if anything needs tweaking.