Sticky Toffee Pudding

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups pitted dates, chopped
3/4 cup boiling water
1 cup whole brazil nuts
1 cup pecan halves
2 cups grated raw parsnip
3 cups grated raw carrot
1 Tbsp creamy honey (not the clear liquid honey)
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 medium eggs
2 Tbsp cooking molasses (not blackstrap molasses)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

For the sauce
1/3 cup unsalted butter
2 tsp cooking molasses (not blackstrap molasses)
1 Tbsp creamy honey (not the clear liquid honey)
Pinch of salt
6 Tbsp black tea (such as English breakfast)


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch square pan with baking parchment paper and lightly oil the sides.

Place the dates in a bowl and add the boiling water, before wrapping in plastic wrap and setting aside.

Place both varieties of nuts into a food processor and blitz until they resemble a powder. Add the grated parsnip, carrot, buckwheat flour, vanilla, honey, eggs, molasses and salt into the food processor and blitz until well blended. Add the baking soda and baking powder and whiz up again. Slowly add some of the water from the dates until the mix is a thick cake batter. Add the dates and pulse briefly or blitz it depending if you want chunks of dates or not.

Empty the mixture into the prepared pan and place in the middle of a hot oven for one hour. You may need to place a piece of foil over the cake 45 minutes into the cooking time to prevent it from colouring too much on the top.

While you're waiting you can make the sauce, to do this just place all the ingredients into a small sauce pan and bring to the boil.

Whisk the sauce thoroughly and boil hard for 3 minutes until syrupy and glossy. Then set aside.

Serve the sticky toffee pudding with the sauce- it is lovely when still slightly warm...