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AI-generated photograph: A neat square of sweet potato pudding with a glossy caramel coconut top on a matte cream plate, dusted with a little grated nutmeg

Home · Recipes · Jamaican sweet potato pudding

Caribbean · Desserts

Jamaican sweet potato pudding

grated sweet potato · coconut and nutmeg · soft caramel top

AI-generated photograph

A dense, spiced Jamaican pudding of grated sweet potato baked with coconut milk, nutmeg and raisins, finished with a soft, sticky coconut top.

Contains: cereals containing gluten and milk, as written. Gluten (from the plain flour) and milk (from the butter) are the allergens in this recipe. Coconut is not a tree nut under UK rules. Dark raisins rarely contain sulphites, but check the packet, as golden raisins often do.

Ingredients

  • 50g unsalted butter: 10g for the tin, 40g melted
  • 800g sweet potatoes, peeled
  • 100g fine cornmeal (polenta)
  • 100g plain flour
  • 200g dark brown soft sugar: 170g for the pudding, 30g for the top
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Half a teaspoon salt
  • 2 tins (400ml each) coconut milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 60g raisins

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Let's cook

  1. Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan). Grease a 23cm square or round cake tin, about 6cm deep, with 10g of the butter. Melt the other 40g and let it cool a little.
  2. Grate the sweet potatoes on the fine side of a box grater, or with the grating blade of a food processor.
  3. In a large bowl mix the cornmeal, flour, 170g of the sugar, the nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.
  4. Pour about 650ml of the coconut milk into a jug, keeping about 150ml back for the top. Stir in the vanilla and melted butter. Mix this into the dry ingredients, then add the grated sweet potato and raisins. Mix well: it should be a thick but pourable batter, like loose porridge.
  5. Pour it into the tin, smooth the top and bake for 40 minutes.
  6. Mix the rest of the coconut milk with the last 30g of sugar. Take the pudding out, pour this over the top and bake for another 35 minutes, until the top is set and golden and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out with no wet batter on it.
  7. Leave it to cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes; it firms up as it cools. Cut into squares and serve warm or cold.

Tips

  • Jamaican cooks use a white-fleshed sweet potato; the orange ones in UK supermarkets work too and give a brighter colour.
  • The pudding slices most neatly the next day. Keep it covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.
  • Grating by hand takes a while; a food processor does it in a minute.

Swaps

  • Vegan: use 40g coconut oil instead of the melted butter and grease the tin with vegetable oil.
  • No raisins: leave them out, or use finely chopped crystallised ginger.

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Our own recipe. The photograph is AI-generated.

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The Caribbean meal plan