Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Sweet Potato Pudding
A dense, spiced pudding of grated sweet potato and coconut, known for its soft top and firmer base.
Jamaican · easy · serves 10
prep 20 min · cook 75 min
~395 cal · 4g protein · 63g carbs · 16g fat · 5g fiber · 38g sugars · 13g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Jamaican sweet potato pudding is one of the island's most treasured sweets, built on the local sweet potato and plenty of coconut. Its old nickname, hell a top, hell a bottom, hallelujah in the middle, comes from the traditional coal-pot method, with fire above and below and the tender middle as the reward.
The grated sweet potato is bound with and a little cornmeal, spiced generously with nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla, and often studded with raisins. Browning sugar or molasses deepens it to a rich, dark brown.
Baked slowly until the top sets to a slight crust over a soft, dense crumb, it is cut into thick squares and eaten with tea or after Sunday dinner. Moist and heavily spiced, it keeps for days and only seems to improve.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 10
4 cups sweet potatoes, grated
2 cups
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 tbsp molasses
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
1
Mix the grated sweet potato with the coconut milk, then stir in the cornmeal, sugar, molasses, and spices.
✎ Chef’s note
The spoonful of molasses is what deepens the pudding to its signature dark brown; brown sugar alone leaves it pale.
2
Fold in the melted butter, vanilla, and raisins to a thick, pourable batter.
3
Pour into a greased, lined tin and bake at 350F (180C) until set with a firm top, about 1 hour 15 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
It is ready when the centre is set but still gives slightly. It firms as it cools, so do not chase a totally dry middle or it turns stodgy.
4
Cool completely before cutting into squares.
Jamaican coal-pot baking tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Kingston (Surrey). Kingston is Jamaica's pulsing capital, where jerk smoke fills the air and ackee and saltfish starts the day. Scotch bonnet heat, allspice, and street-corner cooking define its bold, rhythmic food.
🗺️
Jamaica. Jamaican food burns with its own fire, from jerk-spiced meats smoked over pimento wood to the national dish of ackee and saltfish. Scotch bonnet heat, allspice, thyme, and one-pot rice and peas define an island cuisine with African, Indian, and British roots.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Jamaica
Jerk ChickenChicken marinated in scallion, thyme, allspice, and Scotch bonnet, grilled low and smoky.
Curry GoatBone-in goat marinated in Jamaican curry and green seasoning, then braised slow with allspice, thyme, and Scotch bonnet until it falls from the bone.
Escovitch FishWhole snapper fried crisp, then drenched in a hot vinegar pickle of onion, carrot, Scotch bonnet, and pimento.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Mould or tin.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Sweet Potato Pudding?
A dense, spiced pudding of grated sweet potato and coconut, known for its soft top and firmer base.
Where does Sweet Potato Pudding come from?
Sweet Potato Pudding is a Jamaican dish from Kingston (Surrey), Jamaica.
Can Sweet Potato Pudding be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Sweet Potato Pudding recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Sweet Potato Pudding safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Sweet Potato Pudding take to make?
About 95 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 10.
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