Gluten Free Keto Sticky Toffee Pudding

You'll love the deep, dark, mellow flavours of this keto sticky toffee pudding! It has a moist, buttery cake base that's drenched in a deliciously gooey sugar free toffee sauce. Incredibly, one portion contains just 2.7g net carbs.

Today I’ve reinvented a classic! This gluten free sticky toffee pudding recipe is grain free, keto friendly, sugar free and boy is it a good one! 

Sticky toffee pudding is one of the Great British Desserts. Apparently, it was made famous in the 70s by a hotel in the Lake District. The original base batter is made with plenty of dates, which, of course, are very high in carbs. (It's actually called sticky date pudding in some countries.)

And don't get me started on all the sugar the recipe requires as well!

To all my non-British readers - here in the UK all desserts can be called "pudding". In fact, what we're talking about here is a very moist cake. It is either steamed or baked and then enjoyed warm, smothered in a rich toffee sauce.

A sugar free sticky toffee pudding

As often with keto desserts, you're not getting EXACTLY the same as the original, but a creative substitution that (hopefully) hits the spot just as well. So, here's how I changed up the recipe to turn it into a keto sticky toffee pudding:

Apart from using almond flour and coconut flour, I also added a touch of cacao. This does not make it a chocolate cake so don’t expect a rich chocolate flavour! It's just enough to make it look like a proper sticky toffee pudding. Plus, it’s sweetened with a golden erythritol blend to bring home that traditional toffee caramel flavour. 

The sauce is sugar free, buttery and creamy and complements the base well. You do need both together as unlike many low carb sticky toffee puddings which can be overly sweet, this is sweet but not sickeningly so. There’s a touch less sweetener in the base than most cakes because you have the sauce, too.

Gluten free sticky toffee pudding ingredients

Let's take a look at our ingredients:

• Coconut flour and almond flour: The most popular low carb flours work exceedingly well in tandem. I used what we here in the UK call ground almonds, which is equivalent to regular almond flour in the US. If you're using super fine almond flour, reduce the amount by 1 tbsp.
• Greek yoghurt: Makes the batter lighter - since we're already using a lot of butter and cream in the sauce. You can use plain natural yoghurt as well.
• Eggs: I used large.
• Butter: For that proper sticky toffee taste.
• Cacao or unsweetened cocoa powder
• Brown erythritol: I used a brown erythritol monk fruit sweetener, which has a nice mellow brown sugar caramel taste.
• Vanilla, salt, baking powder
• Double cream (that's heavy cream in the US)

How to make keto sticky toffee pudding

CAKE: Place the egg yolks and sweetener in a mixing bowl. Whisk using an electric whisk until lighter, 2 minutes. Add the melted butter, yoghurt, vanilla and almond milk. Whisk again to combine.

Add the dry ingredients to a mixing bowl. Stir to combine.

Add the egg whites to a clean bowl and whisk until fluffy like soft peaks.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisk with an electric whisk to combine. Don’t over beat. 

Fold through the egg whites with a spatula.

Grease a baking dish with a generous amount of butter or line a cake pan (19 x 19 x3.5cm) with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the pan and level with a spatula.

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until you can insert and remove a skewer without crumbs sticking. Don’t overcook as it will firm up as it cools and you don’t want it dry. 

SAUCE: Add the butter, sweetener and cream to a pan. Allow to melt, bring the temperature to just under a boil then reduce to a low simmer and cook for about 10-12 minutes until golden in colour and thicker.

Whisk using a hand balloon whisk a few times during cooking. Turn off the heat and stir through the vanilla. The sauce should still be fairly liquid when you take it off the heat. As it cools it will thicken. 

Slice the cake and pour the sauce over while it is still hot. (And for the ultimate comfort food experience, consider adding a scoop of sugar free vanilla ice cream!)

Recipe tips

This recipe is all about getting the temperature of the cake and sauce just right. Here are a few thought and tips:

Cake base

In my images both cake and sauce had cooled a little, which is the reason why the sauce did not drench the base. The cake is fragile when it's fresh out of the oven. Let it cool before you remove it from the pan and slice it. And then reheat the individual slices before you pour over the sauce.

Sauce

If you think your sauce is too thin keep cooking it as it will thicken. Just make sure you're using a low to medium heat so it does not burn.

On the other hand, if you want a toffee sauce that easily seeps through every pore of the cake, take it off the heat sooner so it stays more liquid.

For a sauce that does NOT re-crystallise at all once it cools, you must use allulose. Allulose is a great keto sweetener and makes incredibly smooth caramel sauce, but it's not available easily in many countries outside the US. I think that the golden erythritol in the sauce works well as long as you enjoy it warm.

If your keto toffee sauce cools and hardens, simply reheat it on a low heat and whisk with a hand balloon whisk. If it looks like it’s splitting, don’t worry! Keep whisking and heating on low and it will come back together. 

The sauce can be reheated several times.

Storage

Store in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze (cake only) for up to 3 months.

For a runny keto sticky toffee pudding that’s stored, store the cake and sauce separately and reheat the sauce before serving.

More scrumptious keto desserts

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