Ingredients
225g whole medjool dates
175ml water
25ml brandy
100g walnuts
1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
85g butter, softened
140g caster sugar
2 eggs
175g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
100ml milk, at room temperature

Ingredients for the brandy sauce
175g light muscovado sugar
180ml water
50g butter
Pinch of salt
120ml brandy

Method
Heat the oven to 180c.

Stone and cut the dates small.  Put the dates in a bowl and mix through the boiling water and brandy, leave for 30 minutes, mixing from time to time.

Meanwhile, roast the nuts for 10 minutes, shaking from time to time to ensure they roast evenly.

After your dates have soaked, mash with a fork and stir in the vanilla.

Beat the butter and sugar until soft and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time, thoroughly mixing after each.  Put in one third of the flour and gently fold through.  Add half of the milk and fold through followed by another one third of flour, the rest of the milk and the rest of the flour, gently folding after each addition.  Stir through the date mix and the walnuts.

9 times out of 10 the mixture looks slightly curdled at some point in this process, don’t fret though it still turns out perfectly.

Grease and line a 23cm flan tin.  Pour the batter into the tin and put onto a baking tray and cook until golden which is 40-45 minutes depending on your oven.  It should be risen and a cocktail stick or skewer should come out clean.

Meanwhile make your brandy sauce.  Put the sugar, water and salt into a small saucepan and cook over a medium heat for around 10 minutes, stirring only briefly from time to time, until the syrup is golden.    Remove from the heat and stir through the butter until it has melted and then add the brandy.

When the pudding is cooked, cover in the sauce and put to one side to let the syrup soak through and become sticky.  These are better the next day, if you can bear to wait and they heat up perfectly either in the oven for 15-20 minutes or microwave and become more sticky the longer you leave them.