Plate 09 of 10

Sweet Potato Pudding

The Christmas and Carnival dessert, dense and dark. White-fleshed Caribbean sweet potato and calabaza grated raw with their juices, mixed with coconut milk, evaporated milk, melted butter, dark brown sugar, Cruzan rum, a big hand of fresh ginger, rum-plumped raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and a secret half teaspoon of black pepper, bound with flour and no eggs, and baked ninety minutes to a glossy mahogany top.

Prep: 35 min
Cook: 1 hr 30 min
Serves: 12 slices
Difficulty: Medium

Researched · Kitchen testing pending

Dark mahogany squares of dense sweet potato pudding on a green leaf, with a coconut half behind.

Sweet potato pudding is the holiday dessert of Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Crucian Carnival, and it is nothing like a light American pie. It is dense, dark, moist and heavily spiced, built on white-fleshed batata rather than orange yam.

The tubers and pumpkin are grated raw, mixed with coconut milk, brown sugar, fresh ginger, rum-soaked raisins, butter and a generous splash of Cruzan rum, and baked slowly until the top is a glossy crust and the inside a chewy, decadent slice.

Ingredients

1.2 kgCaribbean white-fleshed sweet potatoes, batata, peeled and finely grated
300 gCalabaza, peeled and finely grated raw
400 mlFull-fat coconut milk
250 mlEvaporated milk
115 gUnsalted butter, melted
250 gDark brown sugar
60 mlCruzan dark rumdivided
45 gFresh ginger, finely grated
120 gDark seedless raisins
100 gPlain flour or fine cornmeal, to bind
8 gGround cinnamon
4 gNutmeg, freshly grated
2 gGround cloves
5 mlVanilla extract
6 gFine sea salt
2 gBlack pepper, freshly ground

No eggs

Grating the raw tubers fine breaks their cells and frees native starch. In the oven that starch gelatinises between 75 and 85 °C and, with the flour, sets the coconut fat and milk into a dense sliceable gel. The juice in the grated potato is part of the set; never squeeze it out.

White sweet potato, not orange

Batata is denser and drier with a floral sweetness. Orange yams, and especially canned ones, carry too much water and give a runny pudding.

The five tastes on this plate

Salt balances the sugar and coconut. Fat is coconut milk and butter. Acid is the faint edge of fresh ginger. Heat is ginger, black pepper, cinnamon and rum. Umami is caramelised sugar and roasted tuber starch.

Equipment

Box grater or a processor with the finest grating disc
Large bowl and a stiff wooden spoon
23 by 33 cm ceramic or glass dish, buttered
Wire rack

An iron dutchy in a brick oven, once. A heavy ceramic dish, well buttered, in a conventional oven now.

Method

Grate20 min
Grate the peeled sweet potatoes and calabaza on the finest teeth into a large bowl. Keep every drop of the juice.
Finely grate peeled white-fleshed sweet potatoes and raw calabaza into a large bowl. Keep all their juice; do not squeeze it out.
Plump the raisins15 min
Toss the raisins with 30 ml of the rum and leave 15 minutes.
Toss the raisins with 30 ml of the rum and leave 15 minutes.
Spiced milk3 min
Whisk the coconut milk, evaporated milk, melted butter, brown sugar, remaining rum, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pepper and salt until the sugar dissolves.
Whisk the coconut milk, evaporated milk, melted butter, brown sugar, remaining rum, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pepper and salt until the sugar dissolves.
Combine and bind4 min
Pour the spiced milk over the grated tubers and stir well. Sprinkle over the flour and stir until no dry pockets remain. Fold in the raisins and their rum. The batter is thick, wet and heavy.
Pour the spiced milk over the grated tubers and stir well. Sprinkle over the flour and stir until no dry pockets remain. Fold in the raisins and their rum. The batter is thick, wet and heavy.
Bake1 hr 30 min
Heat the oven to 175 °C. Pour the batter into the buttered dish and smooth the top. Bake on the middle rack 1 hour 25 to 1 hour 35 minutes until the top is deep mahogany and firm and a toothpick in the centre comes out moist but clean, 88 to 90 °C inside.
Heat oven to 175 °C. Level batter in a buttered dish; bake on the middle rack 1 hour 25 minutes to 1 hour 35 minutes until top is firm and deep mahogany, a toothpick comes out moist but clean and centre reaches 88–90 °C.
Cool and slice3 hr
Cool completely on a rack, at least 2 hours, then chill 1 hour for clean squares. Cut into 12 and serve cool.
Cool completely on a rack, at least 2 hours, then chill 1 hour for clean squares. Cut into 12 and serve cool.
07
Sensory cues of doneness
- Visual: a glossy deep-brown top; a dense dark-amber interior studded with raisins, firm but moist.
- Auditory: a faint sizzle at the edges as butter and sugar caramelise.
- Olfactory: cinnamon, fresh ginger, dark rum, toasted coconut, sweet potato.
Look for a glossy dark-brown top and dense dark-amber, raisin-studded interior, firm but moist. Expect faint edge sizzling and aromas of cinnamon, ginger, dark rum, toasted coconut and sweet potato.

Storing it

Wrapped tightly in the fridge it stays moist a week, and freezes for two months.

Troubleshooting

Soggy, runny pudding.: Canned orange yams. Raw, freshly grated white sweet potato.
Dry and crumbly.: The tuber juice was squeezed out. It carries the starch that sets the pudding.
A collapsed heap.: Sliced warm. Cool completely, then chill, before cutting.

Substitutions

One-to-one swaps, with the technique change each one needs.

Ingredient substitutions

Ingredient	Replace with	Culinary impact and technique adjustment
White sweet potato	Boniato, Japanese sweet potato or firm red sweet potato	Must be dense and pale-fleshed
Calabaza	Kabocha or butternut, grated raw	Colour and moisture
Cruzan dark rum	Spiced or amber rum, or an extra teaspoon of vanilla	The molasses aroma

Scaling

Half

A 20 cm square pan, 1 hour 10 minutes at 175 °C.

Double

Two 23 by 33 cm dishes on separate racks, rotated halfway.

What to serve it with

Lightly sweetened whipped cream dusted with cinnamon
Sliced mango or papaya
Cruzan rum eggnog at Christmas, or hot cocoa tea

Questions

What are Caribbean white sweet potatoes?

Batata or boniato: purple-tan skin, dense white flesh, drier and sweeter than the orange kind.

Black pepper in a dessert?

An old West Indian baking trick. Half a teaspoon wakes up the cinnamon and ginger without tasting savoury.

How long does it keep?

A week wrapped in the fridge, two months frozen.