Deployment visit #1: London
One of the most incredible moments as a military spouse who is currently enduring a deployment, has to be a spontaneous phone call telling you to get on a plane to go see the person you miss more than anything. For me, this happened about a week ago when I boarded a plane and spent a weekend in London.
You know, a casual weekend in LONDON.
When you haven’t seen your spouse in over 3 months, you spend all of your time doing exactly what everyone thinks you might be doing.
Eating.
Get your mind out of the gutter.
London was home to some of the most amazing food I’ve had in my life; Indian food, classic English breakfasts, pastries, and to top it off- the food at Borough Market. Borough Market is an outdoor farmers market that is home to not only incredible vendors of street food like paella, fresh sandwiches with homemade bread and roasted meats, empanadas, and the most incredible cheeses you’ve ever seen in your life; it is also home to the freshest, most beautiful produce I have ever laid eyes on.
The oranges that inspired it all.
James and I ate so much food that we needed to take a nap in the middle of the day, just so we could gear up to eat more for dinner. We are hardcore.
Those oranges above were my inspiration for this twist on an English dessert: Sticky Toffee Pudding. They perfumed the air throughout the entire market, and were used for everything from brewing mulled wine on the street corner, to jams being sold alongside fresh nut butters. Once I tasted them and was swirling in a world of sweet confections, the combination was obvious.
If you have never had sticky toffee pudding before, you need to ask yourself these questions:
Do I like warm soft cake?
Do I enjoy sweet toffee sauce?
Does citrus fruit hold a dear place in my heart and in my desserts?
Do I love myself?
If the answers to these things are “yes”, then please. Join me.
Side note: this whole thing was basically made in 1 pan and a blender. As if you needed more of a reason to make it.
Orange Sticky Toffee Pudding
For the cake you will need:
1/2 stick melted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
6 oz. dates
1 orange
2 teaspoons good vanilla extract
3 tablespoons real maple syrup
1 room temperature egg
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
For the toffee sauce you will need:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup real maple syrup
1 stick salted butter
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons cointreau (or other orange liquor)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
We will start with how all love stories begin: the toffee sauce.
In a 9″ cast iron pan, combine 1 cup of the heavy cream, the butter, maple syrup, and sugar.
On low heat, begin to melt this all together, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. When the color turns into a warm brown, slowly stir in the remaining 1 cup of cream, orange liquor, and vanilla- being extra careful because it will bubble up. Turn off the heat, and let that cool. You will want extra of this for ice cream, or a spoon.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Prep your orange by cutting off the ends, and scoring the peel into long strips. (Psttt. You can do this with more than 1 orange for making candied orange peels dipped in espresso chocolate. That may be coming here soon!)
Once you have thin strips of orange peel, place them into a small pot of water. Bring to a boil and simmer these for roughly 10 minutes until the skins are soft. Drain them and then repeat this process once more, this time with the dates in the bath.
Now that they’re soft, set them on a drying rack to cool down. Slice the peeled oranges into 1/4 inch rounds.
In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside and bust out your blender.
Inside the blender, mix the melted butter and brown sugar until they become nice and fluffy. Add in the maple syrup, cooled dates, oranges peels, egg, and vanilla. Blend until you have a smooth and silky mixture.
Combine the blended date and orange mixture with the flour, folding gently as to not over mix.
Take half of the toffee sauce out of the pan to save for serving.
Place the orange rounds onto the remaining toffee sauce into a pretty pattern of your choice. I enjoy a nice asymmetric design. Yeah. Let’s go with that.
Spoon the batter gently over the oranges and toffee, much like you would a pineapple upside-down cake. This will allow the cake to bake into the toffee sauce.
Bake for roughly 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center of the cake with only a few moist crumbs attached.
Once we’re all baked, you’re going to really want to flip that bad boy over.
I beg you to wait a quick 5 minutes. I implore you. The caramel needs to cool just a touch or else it will run all over your dish and not go where you want it: into your toffee pudding.
Once your iron will has ended, place a dish over your dessert, and quickly flip it over revealing the beauty underneath.
Serve this with the extra toffee sauce and some soft vanilla whipped cream.
Or tell everyone you don’t have extra toffee sauce, and keep living your best life.
Who wants some tea?