Vegan Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding
I enjoyed sweet potato pudding while growing up in Jamaica. It is easy to make, using a food processor or a blender. I must say it wasn’t as easy to make when I was growing up, but it was such a delight to eat and an appreciation of my mother’s labor of love that brings back warm memories!
Vegan Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding
In Jamaica, they call this baking style “hell a top, hell a bottom, and hallelujah in the middle.” It results in a decadent pudding with a perfectly baked sweet custard top.
Nowadays, I make my version of Jamaican sweet potato pudding vegan and gluten-free. I quickly peel and chop the potatoes. Process in a food processor, add canned coconut milk, gluten-free flour, and spices, and pop it in an oven. I do a special step to get the custard topping by adding extra sweetened coconut milk halfway during baking.
This recipe is a must-try, there isn’t much room to fail if you are trying it for the first time. You will be happy you tried it! Serve it with my Jamaican Stew Peas with Dumplings and my Jamaican Sorrel Drink for a truly authentic taste of the Island.
In Jamaica, this baking style is called “hell a top, hell a bottom, and hallelujah in the middle.” The result would be a decadent pudding perfectly baked with a sweet custard top.
Nowadays, I make my version of Jamaican sweet potato pudding vegan and gluten-free. I peel and chop the potatoes.
Process in a food processor, add canned coconut milk, gluten-free flour, and spices, and pop it in an oven. I do a special step to get the custard topping by adding extra sweetened coconut milk halfway during baking.
This recipe is a must-try, there isn’t much room to fail if you are trying it for the first time. You will be happy you tried it! Serve it with my Jamaican Stew Peas with Dumplings and my Jamaican Sorrel Drink for a truly authentic taste of the Island.
How To Make Vegan Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding
To make Jamaican Sweet Potato pudding, you will need a special variety of sweet potato that has white flesh with red skin. It is mainly sold in West Indian, Asian and African grocery stores. But fortunately, it’s getting more popular here in the USA and it can even be found in Walmart. Sometimes it is also sold as ‘batata’.
Pro Chef Tip
Update: I have known readers who have replaced gluten-free flours with regular all-purpose flour with great success.
Also, a reader noted that she has doubled the flour and was able to have success using American sweet potatoes. I will have to try it soon.
How to Store Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding?
I usually store mine for 1-2 days in a container with a tight-fitting lid, then refrigerate any leftovers. It also freezes well.
Other Vegan Desserts To Try
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Vegan Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding
Ingredients
- 2 pounds sweet potato (aka batata) *See Notes
- 1 14-ounce can coconut milk
- 1 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1 teaspoon ginger freshly grated
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup gluten-free all purpose flour or brown rice flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon optional
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg optional
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Custard Topping
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 pinch cinnamon optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven 375℉. Grease a 9-inch round baking pan. Set aside.
- Peel sweet potatoes and roughly chop. Grate using the grater or a food processor in batches. If using a food processor or blender, add some coconut milk to help process.
- Transfer grated sweet potatoes to a large bowl, add coconut milk, coconut palm sugar, spices and salt.
- Stir in flour to form a mostly smooth batter.
- Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 45 minutes.
- Combine all topping ingredients in a small bowl and pour evenly on the top of the pudding.
- Return pudding to oven and bake for another 45 minutes or until top is golden brown.
- Delicious served alone or with coconut whipped cream.
- Please double the flour if using the regular American sweet potato variety.
All of your recipes that I have tried have been fantastic, but I must say this one is my favorite right now because it got my toddler son to finally eat sweet potatoes! He begs for this pudding. I decreased the amount of sugar a little and my son eats it for breakfast almost everyday. Thanks for sharing, and I look forward to trying all your other recipes!
Tomomi, thank you for your feedback. I’m so happy you are enjoying my recipes, I could totally eat it for breakfast too!
Bon Jour, Comp ta le vu? For the Batata pudding, OMG I lived in the islands for a couple of years, and the used to make a see potato pudding, but it had a lot of Coconut, essence flavor, and cardamon. So, I am back in the States, and craving island food. I followed the recipe for Batata pudding, unfortunately, didn’t make it to the market place. So, I used baked sweet potatoes, grated carrots, non- gluton flour, honey, CoConut milk, stevia, cranberrys, etc. Since I was a young girl, I learned to perfect my battery. The taste and smell, is simply amazing.
Isabella, so lovely to hear from you. I love to use cardamom as well so delicious. Love your variation of the recipe, I hope you enjoy. Which French island are you from?
Your recipe was excellent but I added 4 spoonful of cornmeal
I love it and it is so easy I followed step by step the instructions were perfect every one cannot just have a slice they going back for more my friend told me to add a little cornmeal and it came out perfect you all should try the cornmeal to the recipe thanks and have a Merry Christmas
Thank you for your feedback, 3 nights ago my hubby and I made 6 pans and while I was making it I ran out of gluten-free flour and my hubby suggested I add cornmeal and it is the most delicious version ever, my husband served some for his staff and they loved it and we shared the final pan today and it was a hit.
I’m happy you liked the suggestion to had some corn meal to the recipe enjoy
The texture is not the same with the food processor. It is better to lightly steam and then puree it will give the same texture as if grated on the finest die of the grater. You are welcome.
Joan, you have to add the coconut milk with the uncooked sweet potato and that is the same process in the blender. I never steam and as you can see the texture is perfect! I haven’t used a grater to do my sweet potatoes in over 20 years because that’s one thing I disliked, brings back too many painful memories of my hand slipping.
I made this recipe with American sweet potatoes from our garden. I doubled the flour and it has turned out great each of the three times I’ve made it! I will be making it for Thanksgiving this year. Thank you!!
Erin, thank you very much for your feedback! You don’t know how happy I am. I have been wanting to experiment with American sweet potatoes from last year but honestly, I’m the only one in my family who cares for American sweet potato so I would have had to eat it by myself but I noticed that with more experimenting my husband is beginning to come around. Several readers have asked me how could they use American sweet potato instead and the Caribbean one and I will be happy to make a note to double the flour.Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
c
My grandfather still gladly does the grating, not on the box grater but you know the old time bumpy grater, ouh girl! not me, I bless the day when like you I realized the food processor could shred and chop ;-)
Looks delicious!
Thank you Chantal, glad you understand but I’m also happy that there are people that are still adhering to the traditional methods and keeping them alive for the younger generation to see and appreciate the labor of love that goes into preparing our traditional meals.
Just a side note…
Batata is the arabic word for sweet potatoes ??
Cool, I learn something new! Thank you :)
Batata? Wow.
Never mind. I am going to the store.
But banana dumplings? Jeeze ,that’s new. And how do you make that?
Hello Lew, It’s delicious make sure it is the Latino or West Indian sweet potato and not the American type. Soo delicious. To make banana dumplings you add grated green bananas to your dough.
hi if i am supposed to add yam in the recepie how much yam will i need to add?
About 1/2 pound of yam should be fine, I love yellow yam.
I made this recipe and it totally flopped! The taste was heavenly, but the texture was not at all what I was expecting. I used regular American sweet potatoes, could that have caused it to be like mush?
Sophia unfortunately, the American sweet potato has too high a water content for it to remain firm in this recipe. You would have had to increase the flour for it to be more solid.This recipe is such a great one when you use batata or the Jamaican or Korean sweet potato. You can find this sweet potato in the Oriental, Latino, Indian, West Indian Grocer or in the International section of most popular supermarkets like Kroger, Walmart, Whole Foods, Pathmark, Safeway, Food Lion, Shoprite etc.
Ok thank you! To how much should I increase the flour content?
To how much should I increase the flour content?
Hello Sophia, It has been many years since I actually made the recipe with American sweet potato. It was when I lived in central Virginia and I couldn’t always get Caribbean sweet potato. I never use recipes when I cook for my family, the only time I write recipes is for my readers. I don’t want to promise you that I will experiment with the recipe anytime, but I’ll visit it in the future. I’m so sorry that I couldn’t give you a better answer.
Japanese sweet potatoes are white flesh with red skins, will they work?
Jana, I believe they will definitely work. I have bought that type at the Asian market and they worked fine! I would love to know if they work for you.