Apple Spice Sticky Toffee Pudding

I'm learning that baking gluten free desserts is much easier then tackling gluten free bread. It's all about texture and with cakes, fruit breads and pies I can hardly tell the difference. I'm still on the search for the elusive fluffy, not too chewy or crumbly sandwich bread/roll. Alas, I'll just savor another one of these and ponder my next bread experiment. 

Another take on the Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe I posted. This one is a lightly spiced apple mingled with those sweet Medjool dates. I think the dates give the recipe a very nice deeply rich flavor. Lovely paired with coffee during crisp Autumn nights.

Pudding

1 cup of Medjool dates, pitted (I found mine at Trader Joe's, you can use other brands too)

1 small apple (peeled, seeded and cut into slivers)

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup softened unsalted butter

1 teaspoon minced crystallized ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2/3 cup water

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cup all purpose gluten-free flour mix (see note)

1 teaspoon xanthum gum

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of sea salt

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Toffee sauce:

1 cup dark brown sugar

2/3 cup butter

2 cup heavy cream

Note: This is my go to Gluten-free AP flour recipe from King Arthur Flour's website. It uses brown rice flour instead of the typical mix of white and brown rice flour for a less gritty texture. They use stabilized  I haven't been able to find it yet, my brown rice flour seems to work just fine. I've found this works great for me. I mix a batch up and store it in a container for ease of use and add xanthum or guar guar when necessary.

6 cups brown rice flour (they use stabilized  I haven't been able to find it yet, my brown rice flour seems to work just fine.)

2 cups potato starch

1 cup tapioca starch 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring the water, brown sugar, apples and dates to a simmer in a small pot for about 10 minutes. 

Place mixture into processor and blend. 

Blend in butter and eggs.

Add in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and xanthum gum and blend until well incorporated.

Lightly butter or grease your muffin tin (either a 12 count or large 6 count). Using a medium sized ladle, spoon batter into each cup until almost to the top lip of each. I used a 12 cup tin. Place into preheated oven on middle rack. 

From what I've read it seems water bath/steaming is the preferred method when baking these. I simply filled up a cake pan with water and placed on the bottom rack and it worked! :) Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Let cool in tins for at least 15 minutes before serving with toffee sauce.

To make the Toffee Sauce

In a small pot combine the butter, brown sugar and heavy cream and bring to a nice boil and stir. The sauce will continue to thicken the longer it goes. I like really thick caramelly sauces so I tend to wait for big bubbles to start forming and popping--usually takes about 14 minutes. When the sauce is to the thickness you prefer, take off of heat.

See that oh-so-good-gooeyness? Whatever you do, don't stick your finger in it, it's scorching hot! Let's serve dessert, shall we? Place a nice spoonful of toffee sauce on each serving plate and plop one of those moist puddings on each toffee puddle. Drizzle more sauce on top and serve with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.