The Dish: British Christmas treat now an island favorite

M.M. Cloutier
·2 min read

One of the most popular Christmas desserts this year at Palm Beach restaurants may be a British classic with enough sticky and gooey sweetness to awe even a ravenous sweet tooth.

Time was when sticky toffee pudding — not a pudding, per se, in the way Americans think of pudding — was a holiday favorite at pubs and elsewhere in England, but now it’s a must at such island eateries as Swifty’s at The Colony.

The dessert — generally a seamed-and-baked sponge cake loaded with dates and smothered in butterscotch sauce — began at Swifty’s a few years ago as a Christmas surprise and now is a year-round staple at the restaurant, 155 Hammon Ave.

Sticky toffee pudding at Swifty's at The Colony in Palm Beach.
Sticky toffee pudding at Swifty's at The Colony in Palm Beach.

“It’s here permanently on the menu now and it’s hands down our most popular dessert,” The Colony’s executive chef and Britain native Tom Whitaker told the Daily News on Thursday, recalling how his family delighted in enjoying sticky toffee pudding every Christmas Eve.

More: Make your reservations now: Your guide to Christmas dining on Palm Beach

Though Swifty’s dessert special this Christmas is a gluten-free fudge brownie with white chocolate, caramel, crushed candy canes and mint-chocolate sauce, Whitaker expects sticky toffee pudding ($15) on the restaurant’s regular menu to be in demand, as it always is these days.

Restaurant 44 pastry chef Priscilla Munoz.
Restaurant 44 pastry chef Priscilla Munoz.

At Restaurant 44 at Palm Beach Towers, 44 Cocoanut Row, sticky toffee pudding is the featured dessert on a special Christmas menu set for the 25th with a three-course meal for $150 (entrées include pistachio-crusted rack of lamb, pan-seared black cod and stuffed roasted quail).

Executive pastry chef Priscilla Munoz’s caramel sticky toffee pudding at Restaurant 44 will be served with gingerbread gelato and cinnamon meringue.

More: The Dish: Christmas Eve dining options include Almond's roast suckling pig

Elsewhere in Palm Beach, Almond, 207 Royal Poinciana Way, features sticky toffee pudding, too, with frozen vanilla Greek yogurt.

The restaurant refers to this dessert as sticky toffee “date cake,” but it’s executive chef/co-owner Jason Weiner’s version of the British classic.

Sticky toffee pudding, aka date cake, at Almond in Palm Beach.
Sticky toffee pudding, aka date cake, at Almond in Palm Beach.

It’s “the best-ever dessert,” Weiner’s Almond co-owner Eric Lemonides told the Daily News on Thursday. “It really almost has a cult following all year long and is an all-around killer dessert that’s definitely a holiday favorite. Everyone gets really excited when they see it on the menu around Christmastime.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: British Christmas staple now a favorite dessert for Palm Beachers