Sticky Date Puddings for my Dad.

So my dad has the big C. He's been sick for a couple of years, and has nearly died a couple of times now, he has been so lucky - and every day I'm thankful he's still with us.  He's hanging on, and has gotten his fight back.

My entire birth family has an entirely different food philosophy to me, choosing to adhere to the Standard Australian Diet - consisting of many wonderful and healthy meats and vegetables, but also full of chemicals, toxins, sugar, wheat and refined products.

Mum and Dad are more than aware of how I choose to eat and feed my family, and I've offered them advice in the past, particularly about the sugar, tumour growth research - but it's fallen on deaf ears. It's not my place to tell them what to eat, so I give them any information I may come across, and leave them to it. What I won't do, is intentionally feed them things that I know will make them sick - so when I was asked to bring dessert to tomorrow's bbq lunch - I decided to try to make healthy one of Dad's favourites. Sticky Date Pudding!!

Typically, this has over 400g of sugar in it and is made using wheat flour. I wanted to make the cake itself sugar free, using organic medjool dates and locally sourced honey to sweeten. The toffee sauce has organic black strap molasses (as Dad's blood counts are low, and molasses is rich in iron) and organic rapadura sugar, which contains many valuable nutrients.

I decided to make it grain free as well, and the cake itself is dairy free. I used almond milk and lots of eggs, to make it protein rich, to help improve his muscle tone after weeks in a hospital bed.  So, I hope you like it Dad. (Of course Dad doesn't read this blog - but I still hope he loves it). 

Ingredients

Puddings 

3 egg whites
3 egg yolks
1 whole egg
14 medjool dates (dry dates soaked overnight would also work)
1 teaspoon chia seeds
170g almond milk
50g honey
50g coconut oil
50g butter
50g almond flour
40g coconut flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder

Separate 3 eggs, reserve yolks. Put egg whites in TMX bowl and insert butterfly. Whip eggs on speed 4 until they're light and hold form. Remove from bowl and put aside for later.

Put pitted dates, chia and almond milk in TMX bowl, cook for 4 mins at 60° speed 3. Then add all other ingredients (except egg whites) and process for 1 minute, speed 9 or until smooth texture is achieved. Reinsert butterfly and egg whites, and mix for 20 seconds at speed 3.

Cook in well greased muffin pans at 170° until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.


Caramel sauce

100g rapadura sugar
90g butter
300ml pure cream
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Put rapadura in TMX bowl and mill for 20sec speed 9, then add all remaining ingredients. Cook at 60° speed 4 for 4 minutes.

Pour sauce over warm cakes, and serve with custard, cream or ice-cream.

Enjoy, and don't forget, just eat real food!!

Marney x