A granny-chic dessert is all the rage in the Triangle. 5 places to try it
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Sticky Toffee Pudding has appeared on several Triangle menus this cold winter.
- Chefs cite the bitter winter (and plentiful dates) for adding the steamed cake.
- Local spots from Raleigh to Chapel Hill report popularity and creative ingredient twists.
In this bitterly cold winter, where we’ve known sheets of ice and inches of snow and temperatures dipping below freezing for days at a time, only one dessert will do.
Pudding is having a moment.
Around the Triangle, an old-fashioned dessert is the hottest thing in sweets. The Sticky Toffee Pudding, a traditionally tender steamed cake, sweetened with dates and brown sugar, has appeared recently on the dessert menu at some of the Triangle’s very best restaurants.
You might think, restaurants have similar desserts all the time. How many chocolate cakes or crème brûlées must be out there? Sure, but Sticky Toffee Pudding is no regular dessert. This traditionally British cake is made from dark sugars and dates, steamed so it remains moist and springy, then coated with a sticky, often boozy sauce.
“For me, it’s one of those quintessentially British desserts, where it’s on the menu at every pub you go to,” said Figulina chef and owner David Ellis, a native Brit who has been in the United States for five years. “It’s comforting and rich, one of the classics and a great cold-weather dessert.”
Figulina’s sticky toffee pudding
Figulina only recently added Sticky Toffee Pudding to its menu, Ellis said, having avoided the British classics so far in his time in Raleigh — initially at Poole’s Diner, then opening his own restaurant. Since being added to the menu, the Sticky Toffee Pudding has started outselling Figulina’s Tiramisu.
The version at Figulina is made with the dates soaked in butter and brown sugar and then cooked in muffin tins. The result is a cake with bit more of a crisp, carmelized exterior, playing up the toasted sugar flavors. As a bit of Union Jack gilding, Ellis serves it with clotted cream ice cream.
Why so much pudding?
As for the sudden surge in sticky puddings, chefs are fairly stumped, with many guessing the Triangle’s bone-chilling winter serves as the greatest inspiration. The dessert has appeared on at least a half dozen menus this winter.
“A decidedly blustery seasonal dessert sure seems delightful when you have to remember a second pair of socks just to get the mail,” said Garret Fleming, chef and co-owner of Bombolo in Chapel Hill, which first added the dessert to its New Year’s Eve menu-flambed for theatrics. “That’s a hell of a lot of places to offer such an old timey sweet.”
At Ajja in Raleigh, chef Cheetie Kumar said dates are always plentiful.
“We developed a gluten-free Sticky Toffee Pudding at the end of the Garland days,” Kumar said of her beloved former restaurant. “It’s a British dessert that has made itself beloved across their old empire! We ran one for New Year’s (at Ajja) and realized how much we and guests loved it. Cold, cold January made a sticky warm dessert a no brainer.”
Where to find sticky toffee pudding
- Ajja: 209 Bickett Blvd., Raleigh. 919-213-1276 or ajjaeats.com
- Bombolo: 764 MLK Jr. Blvd. Chapel Hill. 919-914-6374 or bombolochapelhill.com
- Delancey Tavern: 408 W Geer St, Durham. 919-885-1196 or delanceytavern.com
- Figulina: 317 S. Harrington St., Raleigh. 919-720-4100 or figulinaraleigh.com
- Nanas: 2514 University Dr. Durham. 919-251-8213 or nanasrockwood.com
