Sweet potatoes are a staple on holiday menus, and this candied version is one of my favorite ways to enjoy this vegetable. Serve your potatoes alongside roast turkey, corn casserole, homemade dinner rolls and cranberry Jello salad for a memorable and delicious meal.

Candied Sweet Potatoes Ingredients

To make this sweet potatoes recipe you will need sweet potatoes, brown sugar, butter, ground cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. These sweet potatoes are one of my favorite recipes for Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you want more sweet potato options check out my recipes for sweet potato souffle, mashed sweet potatoes and Hasselback sweet potatoes.

How Do You Make Candied Sweet Potatoes?

To make this candied sweet potato recipe, first cut up some sweet potatoes into slices or chunks and put them in a baking dish. Make a sauce by mixing together brown sugar, butter and spices in a small bowl. Pour that delicious sauce over the sweet potatoes and toss them until coated. Bake the sweet potatoes until the sugar caramelizes and the sweet potatoes become tender. Then serve and enjoy!

Tips For The Perfect Sweet Potatoes

For this candied sweet potatoes recipe you want to use any orange flesh or red flesh sweet potatoes or yams like jewel or garnet sweet potatoes. Look for long thin sweet potatoes. They will be easier to cut. Choose sweet potatoes that have a smooth skin. You don’t want potatoes with bruises, darks spots, mushy spots, cracks or sprouts. I recommend removing the peel on your sweet potatoes. Don’t use the tips of the sweet potatoes, those small pieces may burn in the oven. As the sweet potatoes bake, be sure to stir them every 15 minutes so that they cook evenly. Don’t use pre-cooked canned sweet potatoes. Fresh sweet potatoes work best for this recipe. You can toss the candied sweet potatoes with the sauce in a bowl and transfer everything to a baking dish if you prefer.

Flavor Variations

Candied sweet potatoes are a fantastic side dish that can really bring a dinner together. However, you can change up this recipe to include some other great flavors.

Flavoring: Feel free to use maple syrup instead of brown sugar in the sauce for your candied sweet potatoes. You could also add a dash of vanilla extract. Toppings: You can add toppings such as chopped pecans or streusel. To make your own streusel topping, simply mix together 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup of flour, 4 tablespoons of melted butter and 1/4 cup of chopped pecans in a bowl. As you mix the streusel, it will form crumbles. Put those streusel crumbles on the sweet potatoes and the topping will bake up golden brown. Orange: For a brighter colored dish with some citrus notes you can add 1/3 cup orange juice and 1 teaspoon of orange zest to the butter mixture. Marshmallows: You can add mini marshmallows and to the top of this dish for the last 5 minutes of the bake time or check out my candied yams with marshmallows recipe. Holiday Spice: Try adding a teaspoon of ground ginger, allspice or even pumpkin pie spice!

Sweet potatoes pair well with so many different dishes and are always a huge hit with family and friends. Whether it’s a holiday or a simple every day dinner, you just can’t go wrong with sweet potatoes!

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