Aoife Noonan’s Sticky Toffee Pear Pudding

Aoife Noonan has shared her incredible recipe for Sticky Toffee Pear Pudding with a Sticky Toffee sauce.

This is ideal for the festive season but really it is a dessert that can be enjoyed all year round.

Recipe:

Poached Pears

• 8 small firm pears, peeled
• 500ml pear cider
• 100ml port
• 60g brown sugar
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 Star Anise
• 3 Clove
• 1 Strip Lemon Zest
• 1 Strip Orange
• Zest Juice 1 Lemon

Sponge:

• 50g unsalted butter
• 175g soft brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 175g pitted dates
• 1tsp baking powder
• 175g self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground allspice

Toffee Sauce:

• 175g light muscovado sugar
• 50g butter, cut into pieces
• 225ml double cream
• 1 tbsp black treacle

Instructions

1. For poached pears: Trim base of pears and remove the centre using a melon baller or corer. Put all of the remaining ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the pears and cook for 15-20 minutes until soft. Leave the pears to cool in the liquid with a disc of paper covering the top while making the sponge.
2. For the sponge:
3. Heat the oven to 160C fan. Put the dates in a bowl with 300ml just boiled water and soak for a few minutes before blending together to form a puree. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Cream the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the eggs one by one and mix well to combine.
5. Add the puree to the egg mix, followed by the spices, baking powder and flour. Pour into a greased 2L baking dish and nestle the pears in and around the dish, standing up.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes until firm to the touch.
7. For toffee sauce:
8. Put the butter and sugar into a saucepan with the double cream.
9. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring all the time, until the sugar has completely dissolved.
10. Stir in the black treacle and boil for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure it doesn’t burn.
11. Pour the warm sauce over the cooked pudding and serve.

About Aoife:

Aoife Noonan is a multi-award winning pastry chef and TV chef from Dublin. She graduated with a Culinary Arts degree before moving on to work in some of the best restaurants in the country. She was Head Pastry Chef in 2 Michelin Star Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud for nearly 4 years, before taking on Executive Pastry Chef positions in various restaurants in Dublin. Aoife is currently undertaking a Master’s Degree in Nutrition, a subject which has always been a passion of hers. When creating dishes, she has a love of using classic patisserie techniques and flavours with a contemporary twist.