Baking Sweet Potatoes and Yams to Use in Recipes
When recipes call for cooked sweet potato or yams, baking them is the way to go. Here's an easy way to prepare sweet potatoes and/ or yams to use in all kinds of recipes whether your making pancakes, cakes, muffins or simply want to add some sweet root vegetable goodness to your smoothie.
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- Parchment Paper or Aluminum Foil
Ingredients
- 1 to 8 Sweet Potatoes or Yams, washed (or as many as fit on your baking sheet with at least an inch between them)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 ℉ (or approximately 175 ℃)
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil
- Place sweet potatoes and/or yams on lined baking sheet. If baking a large batch at a time, make suer there's at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) of space between them so that the heat can circulate.
- Bake in 350 ℉ (or approximately 175 ℃) for one hour and check for doneness by putting on an oven mitt and squeezing them. When they are done they should be soft and squishy. Yams usually cook more quickly than sweet potatoes. Smaller yams and sweet potatoes cook more quickly than the large ones. If not all sweet potatoes are done, remove the ones that are and bake the rest for another 15 minutes. Check for doneness again, once again removing the ones that are done. Larger sweet potatoes may require up to about 1½ hours of cooking time.
- Cool cooked sweet potatoes before removing flesh so that they are easy to handle. Alternately, you can refrigerate them for up to five days in a sealed container before removing flesh.
- To remove flesh, slice sweet potatoes (or yams) lengthwise and gently scoop out the flesh with a spoon, pulling it away from the peel.
- Use immediately or store in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 5 days. Another option is to place sealed container in the freezer where they will keep for about one year.
Tried this recipe? Let me know how it was!