Baked sweet potatoes

Name: Baked sweet potatoes
Cook time: 83 min
Total time: 83 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Española
Ingredients: 40 g Butter; 1 teaspoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil; 1 teaspoon Cinnamon; 4 tablespoons Honey; 4 u Sweet Potatoes; 1 pinch Cast salt

Boniatos asados

Easy

Contains allergens

Leche

Incomplete allergen information: some ingredients have not been reviewed yet. Always check the labels before cooking.

Author: Equipo Cocinoa
Preparation time: 83 min
Servings: 4

Summary

Whole sweet potatoes roasted at a moderate heat until the flesh turns creamy and caramelised syrup oozes through the skin. As a pudding with honey and cinnamon, the way they are eaten at the Catalan castanyada, or as a side with butter and sea salt flakes.

Ingredients

4 servings

Add to Bring!

40 g Butter (for the savoury version)
1 teaspoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (for rubbing the skins)
1 teaspoon Cinnamon (ground, for the sweet version)
4 tablespoons Honey (for the sweet version)
4 u Sweet Potatoes (medium, about 300 g each)
1 pinch Cast salt (for the savoury version)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 190 °C. Wash the sweet potatoes under the tap, scrubbing them with a brush to remove any soil, and dry them well.
5 min
Prick them all over with a fork, rub them with the oil and lay them, spaced apart, on a tray lined with foil.
3 min
Roast them on the middle shelf, turning them halfway through, until the skin wrinkles and pulls away from the flesh, syrup starts to ooze out of the holes and caramelise, and a knife slides through with no resistance at all. The thickest ones may need another quarter of an hour.
70 min
Take them out and let them rest for 5 minutes. Slit them lengthways with a knife and push the ends towards the middle so the flesh fluffs up.
5 min
To serve as a pudding, drizzle with the honey and dust with the cinnamon. As a side, put a knob of butter and a few salt flakes in each one. Serve hot and eat with a spoon, straight from the skin.

Notes

Sweet potatoes are lifted at the end of summer and into autumn, and those reaching the greengrocer's in October and November, after a few weeks of curing, are the sweetest. Choose firm ones with smooth skins and no soft spots, cracks, mould or sprouts, all of a similar size so they cook at the same rate. Orange-fleshed varieties turn out juicier and more syrupy; white- or yellow-fleshed ones are drier and floury, and are the ones many Catalan homes roast for the castanyada. Patience pays off: at around 60-75 °C the sweet potato's own enzymes turn some of its starch into sugar, so a gentle roast gives sweeter flesh than a quick one or the microwave. Prick them so the steam can escape and line the tray with foil, as the syrup they release burns and sticks. For a dairy-free version, swap the butter for a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Don't keep raw sweet potatoes in the fridge, as the cold hardens their centres and spoils the flavour; a cool, dry, dark place is better. Once baked, they keep for 4 days in the fridge and can be reheated or mashed.