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The best sticky toffee pudding recipe ever. Cooked in the instant pot and served with custard, just like your old school dinners. If you are looking for simplicity, then instant pot sticky toffee pudding ticks all the boxes.
You will not find an easier way to prep and cook your favourite childhood steamed pudding than this way. Plus, this steamed pudding recipe is easy to adapt to other classics with a few easy ingredient swaps.
This amazing instant pot sticky toffee pudding recipe is an updated post and was originally shared with you back in 2017.
Table of Contents
- Sticky Toffee Pudding
- Are You New To The Instant Pot?
- Is Sticky Toffee Pudding British?
- Can You Make Sticky Toffee Pudding Ahead Of Time?
- Does Sticky Toffee Pudding Have Dates?
- What Is Sticky Toffee Pudding?
- How To Steam A Pudding?
- Sticky Toffee Pudding Ingredients
- How To Make Sticky Toffee Pudding?
- How To Make Sticky Toffee Pudding With Dates?
- Can You Freeze Sticky Toffee Pudding?
- Sticky Toffee Pudding And Custard
- Sticky Toffee Pudding Tips & Tricks
- More Instant Pot Desserts
- Instant Pot Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe
- Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
Sticky Toffee Pudding
We had just arrived back in England after 13 years living in the Algarve in Portugal and were struggling to find somewhere to live.
I felt stressed but we did have our motorhome and was going from camping spot to camping spot, whilst viewing rentals and hoping that we would get somewhere really soon.
With boredom setting in with everywhere seeming the same, I booked a pub for us to stay at. They had a great camping area to the side of the pub, and I was excited to try their well known carvery, which would be our first Sunday carvery in about 20 years.
The meat was amazing, the Yorkshire puddings were spot on, and they had cauliflower cheese. So ticked all the boxes for me.
Then the dessert menu came and of course, 13 years away from English cuisine saw me ordering a sticky toffee pudding.
Not had a sticky toffee pudding for many years and it came with a chocolate sauce and was amazing.
As I tucked in, I said to Dominic and the kids, that we better have a recipe testing day and improve our own sticky toffee pudding recipe, along with other instant pot steamed puddings when we find somewhere to live.
Well, that day is today as I introduce you to 3 days of instant pot steamed puddings, starting with the best of them all aka instant pot sticky toffee pudding.
Are You New To The Instant Pot?
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Is Sticky Toffee Pudding British?
Yes, it sure is. Sticky toffee pudding is one of the BEST British desserts of all time. Whilst in the US you are likely to find a dessert menu loaded with cheesecake and brownies and chocolate chip cookies, in the UK its all about the steamed puddings.
This can be sticky toffee pudding, or its other flavour alternatives such as treacle sponge pudding or jam sponge pudding.
Can You Make Sticky Toffee Pudding Ahead Of Time?
If you are looking for a make ahead sticky toffee pudding recipe, then you are in luck. Because its very easy to make it ahead of time.
Simply prep the ingredients, and load into the pudding basin ahead of cooking and then it can be loaded into the fridge until you are ready to cook it.
Or alternatively steam your sticky toffee pudding and then reheat it when you are ready to tuck in.
Does Sticky Toffee Pudding Have Dates?
Yes, sticky toffee pudding does have dates. The dates are soaked first and then added into the sticky toffee batter to make a delicious old fashioned steamed pudding.
You can use any dates you want, or even add some dried fruit too if you prefer some fruit in your pudding.
What Is Sticky Toffee Pudding?
Sticky toffee pudding, also known as sticky date pudding in Australia, is a British dessert made from sponge cake. It features finely chopped dates and is often served with ice cream or custard.
It has a darker colour because of the dark brown sugar that features heavily in this old fashioned steamed pudding.
How To Steam A Pudding?
With an instant pot of course, or another type of electric pressure cooker. You can make instant pot sticky toffee pudding, pressure cooker sticky toffee pudding, or even Ninja Foodi sticky toffee pudding.
The idea is that you prep into steaming pudding bowls and then they are lowered into your pressure cooker with plenty of water and they steam under pressure. Though in the recipe card below, we will go into detail about this, so that it can be super easy for you.
Its much quicker and easier compared to the old school method of steamed puddings on the stovetop.
Plus, you are not limited to a sticky toffee pudding as you can do any pressure cooker steamed puddings.
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Sticky Toffee Pudding Ingredients
Dates – You can use any dates. They must be stoned though, so unless you want the long task of stoning your dates prior to making this sticky toffee pudding recipe, I would recommend buying them stoned.
Sugar – To make homemade steamed sticky toffee pudding, its dark colour comes from the mix of dates and dark brown sugar. So don’t swap for a different sugar as it won’t be the same.
Flour – And just like any sponge cake you will need some flour to combine it all together. But unlike many cakes such as our air fryer chocolate cake, only a small portion of flour is needed.
Eggs – You will also need 1 large egg at room temperature to beat into your batter.
Butter – There is also a small quantity of butter required and again, much better if it is at room temperature, but of course not essential.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this sticky toffee pudding recipe it has just been our Instant Pot. We have this one and its my favourite and great for desserts and so ridiculously fast for making a steamed pudding.
Plus, we recommend you head over to our instant pot recipes category as we have many electric pressure cooker recipes and have been using instant pots for 5 years.
How To Make Sticky Toffee Pudding?
- Dates. Thinly slice stoned dates and load into a jug. Pour over boiling water and allow the dates to soak.
- Batter. Beat sugar and butter into a bowl and then add in the egg and beat until smooth. Then add in the flour and mix gently with a fork. Once cool add in the drained dates.
- Grease. Use a little extra virgin olive oil spray to grease your pudding bowls.
- Wrap. Load the pudding mixture into the pudding bowls and then tightly wrap in foil. Then lower the pudding bowls onto the trivet inside the instant pot.
- Cook. Pour enough boiling water to cover up to ¼ of the bottom of the steamer bowl and then place the lid on the instant pot, set the valve to sealing and pressure cook for 25 minutes.
- Custard. Do a quick pressure release and then after removing from the instant pot, load into bowls with custard.
And I am sure you can see now how simple sticky toffee pudding is to make, especially if you use the instant pot to cook.
How To Make Sticky Toffee Pudding With Dates?
Sticky toffee pudding with dates often puts some people off. They think that that it will make it a complicated recipe when it doesn’t.
All you have to do differently because your steamed pudding is with dates, is to soak the dates first with some boiling water.
Then you dice your dates into small pieces and load into your sponge batter.
Just think of sticky toffee pudding as a regular sponge pudding but with the addition of dates.
Can You Freeze Sticky Toffee Pudding?
Yes, you can freeze your sticky toffee pudding and I have done this numerous times. Simply allow your sticky toffee pudding to completely cool and then place into suitable freezer containers.
Label it up, so you don’t forget what it is and then load into the freezer.
You can then reheat your steamed pudding from frozen or allow it to defrost first.
Sticky Toffee Pudding And Custard
My favourite way to enjoy sticky toffee pudding is with custard. It reminds me of old fashioned steamed puddings that you enjoyed at school that were delicious.
I cheated and just heated up some custard powder and then served it with the sticky toffee pudding.
Sticky Toffee Pudding Tips & Tricks
- I recommend (if you have one) that you use a trivet with side handles. Then it is so much easier for lifting the steamed pudding in and out of the instant pot.
- Even though I used the instant pot, this sticky toffee pudding recipe will work with any electric pressure cooker.
- You can take any favourite steamed pudding to the pressure cooker. Just use our cook times and method and mix and match.
- It is easier if you use room temperature egg and butter.
- I recommend using a classic steamed pudding bowl. You can also use them for other steamed puddings and even savoury ones in the instant pot.
- The best way to grease your pudding bowl is to spray with extra virgin olive oil and then sprinkle with flour.
Interesting Instant Pot Trick – Use hot water from the tap when filling up the instant pot. If you don’t it will take forever to warm up all that water and take it to pressure.
More Instant Pot Desserts
- Instant Pot Banoffee Pie
- Instant Pot Strawberry Cheesecake
- Instant Pot Chocolate Cake Bites
- Instant Pot Rice Pudding
Your simple sticky toffee pudding recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.
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Instant Pot Sticky Toffee Pudding
Ingredients
- 125 g Stoned Dates
- 100 ml Boiling Water
- 100 g Dark Brown Sugar
- 55 g Butter
- 1 Large Egg
- 75 g Self Raising Flour
Kitchen Gadgets
Instructions
- Thinly slice your dates and load into a jug. Pour in boiling water and mix with a fork. Then allow to rest whilst you get your other ingredients ready. Once they have soaked for an hour, drain, and allow to cool.
- In a bowl, beat the dark brown sugar with the butter until you have a light and fluffy mixture.
- Add in a large egg and blend slowly until smooth.
- Add in flour with a fork and lightly mix until well combined.
- Then finish your steamed pudding batter by adding in dates and stirring with a fork.
- Grease a steamed pudding basin and then load up with the mixture. Then wrap the top tightly with foil.
- In the instant pot add your trivet and then add your pudding basin with foil. Pour enough boiling water to cover up to ¼ of the bottom of the basin. Place the lid on the instant pot, set the valve to sealing and cook for 25 minutes on pressure cook.
- Do a quick pressure release, and remove the steamed pudding from the basin and then serve with custard.
How long do you steam it if you double the recipe.
Hi PW,
I would double the time as you will have twice the mixture to cook 🙂
I have steaming “pots” (bowls really) from when I lived in Britain. Each one has a snap-on lid. Did you use a lid or just cover with foil or ? Sorry if I missed that. Have you ever tried a meat-type ‘pudding’ with a crust? Thanks for your help.
Hi Marne,
We did not use a cover with this pudding because we wanted to see if you needed one. We now think that you do not need one as this turned out great without one. No we have not tried any meat pies with a crust in the instant pot. We have done plenty in our airfryer 🙂
Kind regards
Sam