An apology, Father's day and sticky toffee pudding

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while, I was down with COVID, so I couldn't enter the kitchen to cook without putting my family at risk. I'm back now, and today is Father's day. My dad was in another city and only flew back this morning. He wanted to go to IKEA, so I spent almost the full day at an IKEA showroom in my city. Our lunch got extremely delayed, and we ended up eating at 5 in the afternoon, so nobody was really hungry for dinner. I decided to skip the lasagna I was thinking of making, and instead skipped straight to the dessert - Sticky toffee pudding. 

Now I used Gordon Ramsay's recipe for the most part, so there's not much to say for making the pudding. Instead, I want to talk about the other elements and the plating ideas. First off - understanding the flavours. The sponge itself tastes mildly of dates, so you want to let a bit of that flavour shine through. The toffee sauce comes close to a butterscotch sauce, except for the fact that butterscotch is made with vanilla as well. Therefore, most things that pair with butterscotch pair with sticky toffee pudding

Secondly, we need to look at what to serve with the pudding. In terms of ice cream, a good vanilla ice cream is an easy choice. Vanilla bean pairs beautifully with the toffee sauce, as I mentioned earlier, and it also pairs very well with dates. It's a classic, albeit somewhat boring choice. Another option is to look at the different flavours that pair with the sponge. Although it may sound somewhat odd, baileys pairs very well with the sponge and the toffee. In Bangalore, there's a place that makes baileys ice cream, and since I didn't have time today, I decided to just buy it. Although food is always best made from scratch, I just couldn't find the time today. Another possible idea is to try an apple-cinnamon ice cream. All the flavours would pair very well with each other, and the apple would really help make the dates stand out. 

When it comes to the sauce, you could follow the recipe, as I did, or you could go a bit crazy. I think an interesting idea would be to make the toffee sauce without bourbon, and before serving, add in the bourbon. Since you didn't reduce the bourbon, you might be able to flambe it while serving, making for quite a theatrical presentation. I HAVE NOT TRIED THIS, SO BE CAREFUL IF YOU DECIDE TO DO THIS...IT COULD CAUSE INJURY. I AM NOT LIABLE IF YOU BURN YOUR EYEBROWS OFF. 

But honestly, I'm extremely impressed. The recipe was incredible, and the result was a beautifully airy sponge and a delicious toffee sauce. There's very little I would even suggest doing, and I honestly think that this is one of my favourite recipes ever. 

Recipe - https://www.gordonramsay.com/gr/recipes/stickytoffee-pudding/