Date Pudding with Coconut "Ice Cream"

My mom is master of, well, of apparently doing everything. She cleaned and cooked for 40 people and on top of that made appetizers and about 6 kinds of cookies (about 3 or 4 of these were vegan). She also wanted to add another vegan dessert to the list. She found this recipe online somewhere, and although a little obscure sounding, she decided to try it!

I absolutely loved this and so did Jay. I'm not sure how many non-vegans gave this a chance (there were so many other amazing options), and you do have to be open to liking this one, but it was something different, and it had a great texture to it. My uncle gave it a fabulous review, and even went back for seconds :) The vegan soy/coconut 'ice cream' that we served it with really complimented it well, so I'd suggest you pick some up to serve this with.

Date Pudding

Makes: 9

Pudding Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup chopped, pitted dates

1 1/4 cup water

1/4 cup soft, Earth Balance butter

3/4 cup icing sugar

2 1/2 tsp ground flax seed mixed in 4 Tbsp water (microwaved in 18 sec increments 3x, stirring in between)

Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup nondairy milk

1/4 cup Earth Balance butter

1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

-Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease 9 muffin tins

-Bring dates and water to boil, remove from heat and stir in baking powder

-Let it cool for ~ 5 minutes, puree and then set aside

-Cream Earth Balance, sugar and flax seed

-Stir in flour and date mix

-Scoop into muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes

-Boil the sauce ingredients over medium heat for 7 minutes

-When pudding done and ready to serve, put 1 Tbsp sauce over each pudding and into the oven for 5 minutes, sprinkle with sugar

-Serve with coconut "ice cream"!

Notes: We made these days before we served them (Christmas) and just froze the puddings and refrigerated the sauce. On Christmas we thawed the sauce, poured it over the puddings and put them in the oven just before serving.

Enjoy!