Baked Sweet Potato Recipe

Is it a yam or a sweet potato? Your grocery store produce department has bins full of yams, so they say. The truth is, if you're in the US odds are you never seen a yam. They are almost impossible to find. What you have seen are different varieties of sweet potatoes. True yams are rarely found in grocery stores. It is a plant that is mostly grown and consumed throughout the tropics. They can range in size from the size of a potato to over 100 pounds, that's a lot of yam.

Why so much confusion? In the United States, firm varieties of sweet potatoes were produced before soft varieties. When soft varieties were first grown commercially, stores needed a way to differentiate between the two. So, stores began marketing soft sweet potatoes as yams.

Ingredients for mashed sweet potatoes: Sweet potatoes, butter, cream, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Wash, peel and cut the potatoes into equal sized chunks. Boil until soft and tender, drain.

Combine with the remaining ingredients and mash.

Transfer to a 8 x 8 x 2 inch baking dish, add a few knobs of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar and bake at 350º F until heated through, about 30 minutes.

Baked Sweet Potato Recipe With Cinnamon Nutmeg And Brown Sugar

• Yield: 4 to 8 servings
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 medium sweet potatoes 
• 4 ounces heavy cream
• 4 ounces butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• Kosher salt, to taste

Method

1. Wash and peel the sweet potatoes, then cut them into 1-1/2 inch cubes.
2. Add the sweet potatoes to a 6-quart pot and add enough water to cover by an inch or so. Season liberally with salt and bring to a boil over medium high heat.
3. Turn the heat down to medium and continue to cook at a slow boil until the potatoes are cooked through. You should be able to pierce them with a fork with no resistance, about 20 to 30 minutes.
4. Drain the potatoes in a colander and allow them to rest, in the colander, for 5 minutes to steam off.
5. Transfer the potatoes back to the pot and add the butter and cream. Then add the remaining ingredients. Using a fork mash and stir the potatoes to thoroughly mix and combine the ingredients.
6. Transfer the potatoes to an 8 x 8 x 2 inch baking dish and top with a few knobs of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar.
7. Bake for 30 minutes in a preheated 350º F oven. Serve immediately.

Notes

1. You can make the sweet potatoes ahead of time and rest on the counter or refrigerate until you are ready to put them in the oven.

Tags: baked sweet potato recipe, sweet potatoes recipes, mashed sweet potatoes recipe