Boutique Bake Recipe: Quick 'n' Easy Pecan Toffee Slices

The lovely Catherine from Boutique Bake has been sharing her delicious baking recipes with us (you can check out more Boutique Bake recipes here) and because today is going to be a wash out right around the country, we thought why not have a Beaut Bake-Off ensemble?

This is an easy peasy recipe so even if you don't feel like you are a natural baker (are butter fingers the baking equivalent of gardening green fingers?), why not give this one a go?

Remember, where there’s a whisk, there’s a way. 

Pecans and toffee are a classic flavour combination and really go so well together.

My recipe below uses pecans and dates to make a gorgeous toffee sponge that is seriously moreish. Dates are a great ingredient to use in baking, as they’re sticky and sweet, and make a tasty addition to any cake.

I have also poured my favourite toffee sauce over the sponges, which makes them extra indulgent. These would be a great little dessert to serve with some vanilla ice cream, and would definitely be a crowd-pleaser, rainy evening or otherwise!

Ingredients:

• 80g pecans halves
• 140g stoned dates
• 200g butter (softened)
• 200g light brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 200g self-raising flour

Toffee Sauce (optional):

• 75g butter
• 150g light brown sugar
• 100g golden syrup
• 100ml cream

To decorate: a handful of pecan halves

Method:

• Tip the pecans into food processor and whizz until fine, then pour into a bowl.
• Place the dates into a pan with enough water to cover, and boil for 5 minutes until soft.

• Drain the dates, then whizz in the food processor until nice and smooth, leave to cool.

• Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
• Line the base of a square/rectangular cake tin with some greaseproof paper
• Beat the butter and sugar together until lighte and creamy
• Next, add in the dates, ground pecans, and eggs and beat briefly until smooth.
• Fold in the flour, then pour into your tin and spread out until nice and even
• Bake for 30 minutes, until risen and golden and a skewer comes out clean.
• Leave to cool and then slice in squares (approx. 16)

Now for your Toffee Sauce:

• Place the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan over a low heat
• Stir slowly until all the ingredients are nicely combined, this should take about 5 minutes
• Remove from the heat and pour in your cream and stir through, pour into a jug to serve

• Arrange your squares on a plate or board and drizzle on your toffee sauce

• Finally, scatter over some whole pecans
• Enjoy!

If you’d like to read more from Boutique Bake, why not check out the website www.boutiquebake.ie? And if you are a social media fan, you can like on Facebook, find Catherine on the twitter machine (or Instagram) by searching @boutique_bake or even on Pinterest. 

Catherine is also on YouTube if you want to check out some baking videos!