A Caribbean vegan dessert hailing from Guyana that’s a dense pudding made from grated Pumpkin, coconut, cornmeal and packed with flavour from spices.

I’m back with another Caribbean recipe for you all to dig into, this time I decided to head over to Guyana.

Although Guyana is located in south America, it shares so many cultural similarities to its neighbouring island that it forms part of the Caribbean.

If you’re from the Caribbean you’ll probably be familiar with the word ‘pone’ and would have most likely eaten it as some point in your life.

Speaking of Guyana, be sure to check out my infamous Guyanese Chow Mein (it’s low in carbs and a wheat free alternative)

My family used to make a very good pone on Sundays, we used to reserve making pone for Sundays as this was considered family time.

My family would prepare copious amounts of fancy food to go with the pone – macaroni pie, brown stew chicken, potato salad, plantain etc.. it was like a feast, that’s the only way I can describe it.

In case you’re wondering what exactly is pone, it’s slightly different from the stateside pone which is a bread made from maize.

The definition of pone is a pudding. As with any pudding, this island style delicacy is very thick in terms of texture.

The common ingredients in pone are as followed – flour, sugar, water, spices (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg), cornmeal  along with one or more root vegetables – cassava, coco (taro), pumpkin or sweet potato.

It all depends on the recipe at hand or each islands method of baking pone, so there’s no right or wrong way in theory.

This pone reminds me of Cassava Pone and Jamaican Sweet Potato Pudding, albeit not the same, it does have some similarities for sure.

Not only is this pumpkin pone but very much a contemporary dessert with it being pumpkin season. You can always embrace this wonderful treat any time of year by replacing the pumpkin with squash. – I won’t tell if you don’t!

I do this all the time especially if I am making Vegan Pumpkin Parfait, Pumpkin Rice or Pumpkin Spice Drink 

There some footnotes to go along with this recipe which I will go into detail about right now.

I found it tastes SO much better (no coarse,gritty texture) when the cornmeal is ultra fine along with the shredded coconut and coconut sugar.

I know there’s some controversy surrounding the use of cornmeal, to be honest I seldom eat cornmeal these days because I’m consuming large amounts of protein to carbohydrates to supplement my current exercise routine.

Also the pumpkin pone batter should be more on the thick side, definitely not watery at all.

If the mixture is too thin, no worries simply add some more cornmeal as this will balance out the texture again.

In total I  used ¾ cup of water, you really shouldn’t need more than one cup of water but this will depend on the moisture from the pumpkin.

Another thing, how long the pone takes to bake will vary from 45 minutes to 1 hour, check the pone throughout baking, although I suggest increasing checks after 45 minutes if the pone is not entirely cooked.

You can determine its readiness by inserting a skewer or even a knife, if it comes out clean then it’s ready.

Other Caribbean desserts to try

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