Sweet Potato Pudding
This small-batch sweet potato pudding bakes into a fragrant, tender dessert with warm cinnamon and nutmeg, juicy raisins, and rich coconut flavour. The edges turn lightly caramelised while the centre stays soft and moist, making it comforting and deeply satisfying.
Ingredients
Pudding mixture
- 350 gsweet potato, peeled and finely grated
- 200 mlcoconut milk
- 70 glight brown sugar
- 25 gplain flour
- 30 graisins
- 20 gunsweetened desiccated coconut
- 1 tspground cinnamon
- 1/2 tspground nutmeg
- 1 tspvanilla extract
- 1/4 tspfine salt
Tin and finish
- 5 mlneutral oil
Instructions
- 1
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly oil a small baking dish or loaf tin, about 18 x 12 cm. This prevents sticking and helps the edges caramelise.
- 2
Peel and finely grate the sweet potato. Finely grating is important for a smooth, cohesive pudding that bakes evenly in under an hour.
- 3
In a mixing bowl, combine the grated sweet potato, coconut milk, light brown sugar, plain flour, raisins, desiccated coconut, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, and salt. Stir thoroughly until no dry pockets remain; the mixture should look loose but not watery.
- 4
Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and level the top. Bake for 38-40 minutes, until the pudding is set in the centre, the edges are darker and slightly caramelised, and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean with a little moisture.
- 5
Let the pudding rest for 10 minutes before serving. This short rest helps it firm up for cleaner slices. Serve warm, or at room temperature for a denser, more traditional texture.
Nutrition per serving
Notes
- •For deeper flavour, soak the raisins in 1 tablespoon hot water for 5 minutes, then drain before mixing in.
- •If your sweet potato seems very wet after grating, squeeze out 1-2 tablespoons of liquid so the pudding sets more quickly.
- •A little extra coconut milk spooned over the top at serving is delicious.
- •This beginner version is slightly simplified and scaled for 2, while keeping the classic sweet potato, coconut, and warm spice profile.
Background
Sweet potato pudding is a beloved Jamaican baked dessert with roots in Afro-Caribbean home cooking, where local root vegetables and coconut were transformed into richly spiced sweets. Traditional versions are often larger, denser, and sometimes baked with a custardy coconut topping known as the “hell a top, hell a bottom” style.
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