These candied sweet potatoes are like dessert with a thick syrupy sauce made from orange juice, brown sugar, and butter. Top them with marshmallows and bake a few minutes to toast. Perfection!
The perfect make-ahead candied sweet potatoes
In my opinion, the best Thanksgiving and Christmas recipes are easy, and they tolerate being made a day or two ahead of time with no loss of flavor or texture.
This is one of those recipes.
Depending on how things are going with cleaning (and how much room there is in my refrigerator), I will either peel and pre-cut the sweet potatoes the night before or cook the whole dish the night before, stopping just before adding the marshmallows.
It reheats beautifully, so it really doesn’t make any difference to the finished dish. When I make it ahead, I simply cover the whole thing and put it in the fridge, then on the morning of the holiday, I bring it out, put it in the microwave for five or so minutes to heat everything up, and then I cover it with mini marshmallows and pop it in the oven for ten minutes to toast them.
About half the time, I forget to take it out and the marshmallows melt into the syrup. Oh well. Toasted marshmallows always sound nice, but no one cares either way.
Well, maybe the kids care. But for as much as they eat, they’ll get over it.
The perfect day-of candied sweet potatoes
Now, all that said, our family has shrunk significantly and we now cook for only 6 people including our two children. So. I don’t make much of anything ahead anymore. It’s simply easier to do the cooking once and on the morning of the holiday.
What I do these days is peel and cut up the potatoes on the morning of the holiday, prepare the sauce, pour over the potatoes, and microwave. It takes less than 15 minutes from start to microwave, so I don’t sweat doing it ahead of time.
After that, it’s the same. I microwave until the potatoes are tender, then I cover them with marshmallows and put them in the already hot oven to toast. And then usually I forget to take them out and the marshmallows all melt into the sauce.
Candied sweet potatoes are part of my How to Host a Stress-Free Holiday Meal ebook which is available now.
© 2009 – 2020, Tara Ziegmont. All rights reserved.
amy2boys says
Hi! I posted Candied Sweet Potatoes at Rachel's today as well! I (My recipe is different though.) This looks so good – I love toasty marshmallows!
Tamy ~ 3 Sides of Crazy says
LOL How can you go wrong with marshmallows? 🙂
Robyn's Online World says
Sounds yummy! I make mine mashed and serve in orange cups – I use the orange juice from hollowing out the oranges inside the mix. I think the orange juice, like in yours, is a very important key to good sweet potatoes!
FeelsLikeHomeBlog says
Amy – I tried to find your post, but no luck. Can you share the link so we can come over and check it out?
[email protected] says
This is my favorite way to eat sweet potatoes, I need to try them with orange juice.
Geri
amy2boys says
Sorry – I wasn't clear. I linked it at Mouthwatering Mondays – at http://www.asouthernfairytale.com. My post is at http://www.milkbreathandmargaritas.com/2009/11/…
Thanks for trying to find it!
Ida says
I have used canned sweet potatoes, also, and they work just fine!
FeelsLikeHomeBlog says
I never thought about that, but canned sweet potatoes would work nicely. You should probably shorten the cooking time in that case because they're already soft.
Ida says
I have used canned sweet potatoes, also, and they work just fine!
FeelsLikeHomeBlog says
I never thought about that, but canned sweet potatoes would work nicely. You should probably shorten the cooking time in that case because they're already soft.