Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding Recipe

Are you really Jamaican if you do not know about “Hell a top, hell a bottom and Hallelujah in di middle”? If you don’t know what I’m referring to, I think it’s time we renew your citizenship. Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding is a dessert loved and enjoyed by the young, old and everyone else. Recipes have been handed down from generation to generation to preserve this rich tradition.

As with everything in Jamaica, the name of an item changes based on where you’re from. It doesn’t matter if you call it “Pone”, “Pitayta Puddin” or simply “Potato Pudding”, the magic of this dessert carries its own stories. Everybody has the skill to make a potato pudding, but not everybody has the right to create one. The right comes with experience and the proper ingredients. If you have never made it before, take a chance on the steps below. Maybe, you’ll end up on someone’s “Memory Lane”.

How to Make Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding?

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 5 pounds sweet potato
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1 packet of coconut milk powder
• 1/4 cup melted margarine
• 1 whole nutmeg, grated
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 3 cups of dark sugar
• Raisins (optional)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 teaspoon Browning (optional)

Preparation

1. Peel cut and grate sweet potatoes and place in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add dark sugar, flour and raisins (add as much as you’d like).
3. Combine coconut milk powder with water, mix well and add to the sweet potato mixture.
4. Add melted margarine, nutmeg, salt, cinnamon powder, vanilla, lime juice and browning and mix well.
5. Scrape mixture into a greased 10inch baking tin.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven 350 F or 180 degrees C for 90 – 105 minutes.

*Note: 5 pounds sweet potato will yield 12 cups when grated.

Here is a time-lapse video of sweet potato pudding being baked:

Memory Lane

Pitayta pudding has to have the right amount of moisture – it cya too dry. The Hallelujah effect has to be in play, or else, your pudding won’t make it. If you’re from the “new school” and have been wondering what “Hell a top, hell a bottom and Hallelujah in the middle means”, find out below:

Not only is the pudding tasty, but the mixture is equally delightful. Children couldn’t wait to use their “Lick Pot Sweet Finger” to clean the bowl. The roughest part of potato pudding is waiting for it to be finished and become edible. Don’t understand what I mean? Take a listen:

“The path to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” That statement has proven to be true over the years. This next storyteller explains his affinity with potato pudding as we’ve never heard before:

The preferred version of the pudding is with the moisture on top. This final storyteller describes her idea of the perfect potato pudding:

Is your mouth beginning to water as you remember the good pudding days? There is no time like the present to follow the recipe and satisfy your tastes buds.

Come share, celebrate, boast and debate our Jamaican culture with us.