This keto friendly Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe features a tender, moist almond flour cake smothered in a rich sugar free toffee sauce. A heavenly low carb dessert with less than 7g total carbs per serving. And you can bake it right in your Instant Pot!
Oh looky, what do we have here? Would you believe me if I told you it’s a keto version of Sticky Toffee Pudding? For those of you familiar with your classic British desserts, prepare to have your minds blown by this deliciousness!
My own mind was blown. This sticky toffee pudding recipe may have just shot to the top of my favorite holiday desserts list. An incredibly moist, tender cake with a thick rich toffee sauce. And I cooked it in my Instant Pot! But don’t worry, I am including instructions for the oven as well.
Never heard of sticky toffee pudding? I don’t care where you are from or what your traditions were growing up, you need to make this recipe now. I don’t mean in a few minutes, I mean RIGHT NOW!
What is Sticky Toffee Pudding?
It’s not pudding of the sort that most Americans would recognize. True to the delightful way the Brits use language, pudding can refer to dessert in general. It can also refer to a custard or a steamed cake. And sticky toffee pudding falls into the later category, although it can be baked or steamed.
Like many people, I’ve always assumed it was of British origin. But according to a couple of sources, its origins may actually be Canadian. Whoop whoop, another amazing dessert from my homeland! However, it was made famous by a hotel in the Lake District in the 1970s.
I don’t remember when I first heard of this delectable English treat but I do know that I wandered around London on my honeymoon, desperate to find some. I figured it would be sold in every restaurant and cafe but it was surprisingly hard to find. I did finally manage to get my fix at a little pub and it was just as good as it sounds.
The conventional Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe takes dates to help sweeten it. A lot of dates.
Dates are shockingly carby, did you know that? A single Medjool date has 20g of carbs. A cup of them has about 110g. GAH! That’s a shocking amount of carbohydrates for something that is not much bigger than a walnut.
I just got a toothache writing that.
How To Make Keto Sticky Toffee Pudding
Date-Free: Obviously the dates had to go. I considered chopping up a single date to put into the mix but that would add over 2g of carbs per serving. So to get that same deep flavor, I used a little Yacon syrup, which only has about 12g per tablespoon. You don’t need to use this if you prefer not to.
I also added a little cocoa powder to deepen the color of the cake, but not so much that you can taste any chocolate flavor.
Steamed or Baked? When I was researching Sticky Toffee Pudding recipes, I found that most of them are baked. But it occurred to me that using an Instant Pot would give it that fantastically moist steamed texture.
If you don’t have an instant pot, you can also bake it in a water bath (instructions included in the recipe notes).
Two different sweeteners: I know you want me to tell you that the toffee sauce can be made with whatever you have on hand. But it can’t. You need a sweetener like allulose or Bocha Sweet (or possibly xylitol) to make the sauce gooey. Swerve works perfectly in the cake itself but would recrystallize too much to be used alone in the sauce.
So the sauce takes both Swerve and allulose or Bocha Sweet. This combination of sweeteners is ideal for gooey rich sauces like caramel. I usually use Bocha Sweet in my sugar-free caramel sauce but this time I used allulose and it worked beautifully.
To deepen the color and make it more of a toffee sauce rather than caramel, I boiled it longer until it was a deep amber. It was truly a thing of beauty!
To serve the Sticky Toffee Pudding: This is an incredibly moist cake and it’s not easy to remove from the pan in one piece. You can cut it into wedges in the pan, but if you want to take it out intact, you must line the bottom with parchment paper. That way, you can flip it out onto a serving platter (the bottom will become the top of the cake).
Let the cake cool completely before trying to serve, so it holds together a little better. The toffee sauce is best served warm, and you can warm the individual slices of cake gently before serving.
Ready to try my keto version of this classic dessert? You won’t regret it!
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Keto Sticky Toffee Pudding
Ingredients
Cake:
- 2 tsp Yacon syrup, (or molasses, optional)
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 6 tbsp butter, , softened
- 3/4 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 2 large eggs, , room temperature
Toffee Sauce:
- 6 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup Swerve Brown
- 1/4 cup Bocha Sweet , or allulose sweetener
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake:
- Grease a 7-inch ceramic souffle dish. If you want to take the pudding out of dish whole, line with a circle of parchment paper on the bottom and grease the paper as well.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the Yacon syrup, hot water, and vanilla. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sweetener until lightened and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs until well combined, then beat in the almond flour mixture.
- Add the Yacon/hot water mixture and beat until the batter is smooth. Pour into the prepared baking dish and spread to the edges. Smooth the top and cover tightly with aluminum foil.
- Set the trivet into the Instant Pot and add 1 cup of water to the bottom. Carefully lower the baking pan onto the trivet and seal the lid. Make sure the vent is also sealed. Set to the cake setting (or Manual) for 45 minutes. (For Oven Baking Instructions, please see the Recipe Notes).
- Let the pressure release naturally from the Instant Pot before removing the cake. Let the cake cool completely to firm up, then flip out onto a serving platter (the bottom will now be the top) or cut into pieces in the pan.
Toffee Sauce:
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter and the two sweeteners. Stir together as they melt and then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook about 5 minutes, until it's a deep amber. Keep your eye on it, as it can boil over or burn easily.
- Add the cream and vanilla extract. The mixture will bubble vigorously; this is normal. Whisk until smooth and boil another 2 minutes. Let cool to lukewarm before serving over the cake.
Notes
Nutrition
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Hi Carolyn! Sticky toffee pudding is my favourite dessert and I make it every Christmas and have been looking for a healthier alternative, so thank you so much! I just wondered if it would be ok to make it a few days in advance and freeze it?
You can certainly make the cake in advance but save the toffee sauce until you want to serve it. 🙂
This is one of our absolute favourites and it’ll be our 3rd christmas that it’ll replace the pudding. Thank you Carolyn
Thanks so much!
I made this and cooked it in the pudding steamer (used 1/2 the sweetener) it was amazing, everyone loved it and couldn’t believe it was keto. Thank you
Great to hear!
Just made a pre- Christmas test cake and it is so awesome. I am going to try and freeze cake for future, so I will always have one on hand.
My question is how to store the extra toffee syrup. I refrigerated mine, and it is solid. Can it be stored at room temperature for a short duration?
Five stars for this amazing dessert I will be taking for Christmas dinner!
Should be fine at room temp for 24 to 48 hours.
I’m not sure what went wrong? This never happens! Anyway i was making the toffee sauce ahead of time and it looked great! Nice deep amber. It was textbook! As soon as I added the cream and vanilla, it went a pale tan colour and the worst part is that it never got the thickness back. It’s too thin now and I won’t be able to serve it for my hubby’s birthday dinner tonight. I’m extremely disappointed. 😔
What sweetener were you using?
Update: I actually used the sweeteners you recommend 🙂
Anyway, in the end the whole pudding and sauce tasted wonderful. My guests were thrilled! My hubby suggested I serve it anyway even if it was pretty light in colour. It still tasted amazing. FYI it’s really yummy with plain yoghurt. This is definitely a winner and will be a regular 🙂
Thanks Carolyn and Merry Christmas!
Looks amazing. Could you make it in a small springform pan in the instant pot?
I would think so but you need to wrap it tightly in foil so water doesn’t leak in.
I made the toffee caramel with Xylitol instead of Swerve and Bocha Sweet because I didn’t have those. At first it was grainy but I left it off the stovetop to rest for 20 minutes and it was perfectly smooth. So yes you can make it with Xylitol! Just let it rest for a while to dissovle.
This sounds amazing and I cannot wait to make it! I am wondering when you make the toffee sauce if the butter is regular salted butter? Or better to use unsalted?
It’s up to you. I have a high tolerance for salt.
Don’t have an instapot. Could this possibly be done in a slow cooker as some of your moist cakes have been done, or is there too little batter to work properly?
I don’t have a ceramic soufflé but I do have a 7” Pyrex glass that would be similar shape. Do you think that would work? I also have a Bundt but my concern would be that would make it too difficult to come out.
I think your glass pan is the best bet.
This is brilliant! Thank you, you’ve made my hubby very happy! The toffee sauce is divine – I think it would also be lovely stirred (cold) into greek yoghurt. Your caramel sauce is lovely served this way.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Can I use a springform pan?
Could you do this in ramekins, like traditional STP? If yes, suggestion for length of bake or how to tell when done?
I am sure you can but I can’t advise on the timing since I didn’t try it!
I tried ramekins in the IP and they took 20 minutes, low pressure. Turned out perfectly!
Taking forever to bake. I used the non instapot directions. Waste of money and time. This is one of the worst keto recipes of Carolyn’s I’ve tried. It is just very watery even after 40 minutes. So I’m trying 50 minutes, then an additional 10 if it’s still liquid. I follows directions exactly. Waste of organic cream, almond flour, and every other ingredient that’s expensive, including these days organic vanilla extract and yacon syrup.
If the batter was watery, something went very very wrong. The batter should never be watery, even before you try to bake it. I wonder…. did you happen to use a springform pan in a dish of water in the oven? If so… then water leaked into your pan.