How To Cook Sweet Potatoes – The Three Secret Tricks!
22nd November 2016 By Chocolate Covered Katie
How to cook sweet potatoes that will yield the absolute BEST sweet potatoes you’ve ever tried in your life:
Hot, caramelized baked sweet potatoes.
These 3 easy tricks will revolutionize the way you think of sweet potatoes – If you’re anything like me, prepare to become completely obsessed.
And if you think there’s no way you could love sweet potatoes more than you already do, just wait. It’s highly likely you’ll suddenly find yourself craving sweet potatoes at every single meal and dreaming about them between meals as well. If you think I’m exaggerating… this is something you just have to try in order to believe the shocking difference in results.
Instead of only slightly sweet or unevenly cooked sweet potatoes, these three small changes in how to cook sweet potatoes will yield sweet, sticky, wonderfully caramelized sweet potatoes that taste almost like candy.
Sweet, sticky, gooey, candy-like sweet potatoes… image: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/how-to-bake-sweet-potatoes.jpg
Okay, so if I’ve caught your attention, here are the 3 tricks!
Trick One: Choose thinner sweet potatoes.
I know this sounds counter-intuitive, and conventional wisdom will tell you to go for the fattest, juiciest-looking sweet potatoes at the store, ignoring the picked-over, anemic, and shriveled ones. But that would be a mistake, and here’s why:
While baking, the heat will evenly cook even the very center of the thinner potatoes, getting them all hot and caramelized; whereas with the fat potatoes, the outsides will be done well before the centers have a chance to cook through.
image: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/sweet-potatoes.jpg
(That middle sweet potato is the perfect size and shape.)
Trick Two: Don’t just poke a few holes with a fork; use a large knife to slash about a third of the way into the potato 8-10 times on both sides.
Why this works: It helps the heat get all the way into the centers of the potatoes, once again ensuring they will cook evenly. It also allows moisture to escape so you don’t end up steaming the potato and getting stuck with a watered-down result.
image: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/baked-sweet-potatoes.jpg
Trick Three: Cook longer and hotter.
Go big or go home. How big? I’m talking 450 F – a full hundred degrees more. And start the potatoes in a non-preheated oven, which will cook them more evenly while also saving energy. Baking at a higher temperature will really caramelize the natural sugars in the sweet potatoes. My all-time favorite way to enjoy the baked, caramelized sweet potatoes is slathered in Tahini. Please please please try it this way, at least once in your lifetime! Seriously, you will not regret it!!!