Friday, October 2, 2009

Sticky Toffee Mess

I have a recipe for sticky toffee ice cream sauce that I've been wanting to make. Sticky toffee pudding is an English dessert that consists of a cake with dates and a toffee/caramel sauce over the top. This ice cream sauce sounded wonderful. I made it as one would in England, using treacle (golden syrup), but dark corn syrup could be substituted.

I dutifully got to work and put the four simple ingredients in the pan to cook. My failure was that I was busy doing other things in the kitchen and let it cook way too long. When the time came for our dessert that evening, the sauce was quite congealed and when spooned over the vanilla ice cream it hardened into one big lump of sticky toffee caramel candy. Don't get me wrong, it tasted delicious with a butterscotch-penuche flavor that I adore. It was just impossible to eat with the ice cream. I chopped up a Heath bar to add to the decadence of this sundae.The next morning I looked at the bowl of solid caramel and decided to give up on the sauce idea and spooned it out into globs on wax paper and made individual candy pieces. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Not that I necessarily need candy nor did I invent it!Sticky Toffee Sauce

3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp soft dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp dark corn syrup or treacle
3/4 stick unsalted butter
2/3 cup heavy cream

Put the sugar, syrup and butter in a pan and slowly bring to the boil, allowing the butter to melt and the sugar to dissolve. Let the mixture boil for a couple of minutes before carefully adding the cream. Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the sauce is thick, sticky and glossy. Serve over ice cream or as a sauce for desserts.

4 comments:

KandN said...

Would that come under the heading of, "good old English ingenuity"? ;>)
Way back when I was a wee child my mom used to make a cookie with bits of caramelized sugar blended in. I don't remember the details, except that she caramelized the sugar in the oven before starting the cookies. When she wasn't distracted, it was a wonderful smell. Then there were the other times . . .

Foodiewife said...

I would say that you did a great job of recovering from a kitchen boo-boo. Actually, you got a few recipes out of it. I have been longing to make sticky toffee pudding, and I keep forgetting about it. I've been toying with making a heath crunch bar ice cream, too. Heck! You over-inspired me and I'm have ADD recipe greed!

whack patti said...

Yum! Bring me some right now. Why didn't you bring some yesterday?

Big Sis said...

The candy sounds better then the sauce. Think how many great caramels I can eat if I don't have ice cream calories!