Pain patate is a sweet, moist and richly spiced pudding made from shredded sweet potatoes. This recipe is a vegan take on traditional Haitian sweet potato pudding, making for a delicious breakfast or healthy dessert.
Haitian Pain Patate (sweet potato pudding)
In the world of desserts, pumpkin certainly gets a lot of air time. Meanwhile, the humble sweet potato seems to be forgotten about, reserved almost exclusively for savoury dishes.
As a big sweet potato advocate, I was very excited to discover that one of Haiti’s most popular desserts features sweet potato featuring as the star of the show! Although the name Pain Patate literally translates to potato bread, it’s more of a pudding than anything else.
The best way I can describe pain patate is a cross between sweet potato pie and bread and butter pudding. It’s sweet, moist and richly spiced and utterly delicious!
Traditionally, pain patate is served as an indulgent dessert and is made with a lot of sugar, butter and evaporated milk. I decided to make this recipe a little healthier, so it could be suitable as either of breakfast dish or a lighter dessert. I also have made the recipe vegan-friendly so everyone can enjoy this delicious pudding!
Making Haitian Sweet Potato Pudding
Normally, pain patate would be baked in one large baking dish and sliced up when serving. For this recipe, I opted to bake the puddings in single-serve ramekins. You can do either, however, if you make this in a baking dish you’ll need to adjust cooking times accordingly.
1. Preheat oven to 400˚F (205˚C) and grease 4 small ramekins. Place grated sweet potato, coconut milk and mashed banana in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add in remaining ingredients to the saucepan and mix to combine. Cook for another 10 minutes.
4. Divide mixture into prepared ramekins. Place in oven and bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Ingredients for Pain Patate/ Haitien Sweet Potato Pudding
SWEET POTATO- If you can find them, white sweet potatoes work best for this recipe if you can find them. Otherwise, orange sweet potatoes will do the trick.
COCONUT MILK- Traditionally, this Haitian dessert is made with a mixture of evaporated and coconut milk. I’ve omitted the evaporated milk to make this recipe vegan, however, feel free to use a mixture of milk if you would rather.
BANANA– Make sure you use a ripe banana for this recipe to provide a lovely natural sweetness.
ALMOND MEAL– If you don’t have almond meal on hand, you can substitute this for regular or gluten-free flour.
GINGER: If you don’t have fresh ginger, substitute for 1/2 tsp ground ginger.
COCONUT SUGAR: I like the caramelized flavour the coconut sugar brings to this recipe however you can substitute for a sugar/sweetener of your choice.
Serving Suggestions for Haitian Pain Patate
I served this pain patate with some creamy coconut yogurt which complemented the pudding nicely. However, the dish also works perfectly well on its own.
More sweet potato recipes to try:
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