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
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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This sticky toffee pudding is our go to every Christmas now!
I have a stovetop pressure cooker, not an Instant Pot. What pressure setting (High or Low), and how much time should I use to make this in my pressure cooker?
I am not sure since I don’t own such a thing. Perhaps you can look online for a conversion?
I haven’t tried this yet, but I WILL! My family has a very old recipe (well over 100 years) that is similar to plum pudding… We call it Suet Pudding. It is made with suet for the fat, raisins, walnuts and steamed or (boiled in cheese cloth bag). I cannot wait to try this! Thank you!!
I really want to make this, however can’t understand why cooking time in instant pot is higher than oven! And what is instant pot pressure level? Thank you in advance.
Hi Carolyn:
Help. I just made this Sticky Toffee Pudding and something went wrong. I didn’t have that size of ramekin, so I used a Corning Ware pot, about the same size. Everything else was the same. I put it in the IP, with trivet, 1 cup water, wrapped in tin foil and set it for 45 min. When it was done the outside appeared to be done, but a big circle in the middle wasn’t. So, I decided to put in the oven for about 15 minutes. I’m waiting for it to cool and see if it sets up. It certainly didn’t/doesn’t look like yours. However, I’m going to eat it anyway. So disappointed.
Lynn
Besides the center being undercooked, in what way does it not look like mine? That might help me figure it out. Also… what sweetener did you use?
I can’t find a 7 inch on amazon, they are all measured by the amount: 32 oz, 16 oz, 4 oz, etc. Is a soufflé pan shaped differently than say a ramekin?
I want to make sure I bake this correctly in the right size/shape pan.
You need to read the description of the product, not just the name. This one is the same as mine. https://amzn.to/3KTrHew
Double checking: That would be the 48oz size then?
Thank you!
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.