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“I can’t imagine there being a Sunday dinner and it not being there,” states Tarsha M. Gary about candied sweet potatoes. The executive chef and owner of Houston, Texas-based CRAVE Gourmet Catering further notes, “You can probably pull up to any soul food restaurant or a family Sunday dinner, and it will not be unusual to see the candied sweet potatoes on the table.”
Synonymously referred to as “candied sweet potatoes” as well as “candied yams,” this sugary soul food dish holds a place of honor on the menu of Black and Southern cuisines because, says Gary, “It’s an absolute foundation and staple for our foodway and our tradition.”
“There are many cookbooks, probably going back as far as the 1800s that record the recipes of sweet potatoes,” she observes. “But it’s important that we make no mistake in crediting the introduction of the culinary practice to have been brought here by enslaved Africans who had no books and who relied on the execution of their well-established cooking techniques and, of course, their masterfully seasoned palates.”
The award-winning chef emphasizes that candied sweet potatoes’ technique and flavor profile, like most Southern-style cooking or food, originated in West Africa and used the indigenous yams found on the continent.
Is it Yam or Sweet Potato?
This brings us to the type of tuber for this sweet side dish (and yes, it’s a side dish and not a dessert): yams or sweet potatoes. “The yam is a tuber that is drier in texture. It is typically a white-fleshed potato that has a dark, bark-like skin. I’d say it’s usually dark brown or black and this is what they eat in Africa,” explains Gary.
“What we think about as ‘yams’ and what we call ‘sweet potatoes’ and ‘candied yams’ here in this country [United States] are actually sweet potatoes.” The sweet potato, notes Gary, is usually orange or red in skin color and has a different texture than yams. She tells us the flesh color of sweet potatoes can come in a variety of colors ranging from orange and purple to white.
When it comes to cooking this signature soul food dish, the culinary pro describes the process this way, “Candied sweet potatoes are brought together through the braising or the stewing of cut sweet potatoes combined with spices and a sugary syrup. And, for me, it’s baked like a casserole. Although, some people do assemble it in a pot and prepare it stove top.”
To Each His Own
Since the ingredients for this dish are all easily found in our pantries, the chef acknowledges cooks will adjust the spices, butter and sugar amounts to suit their tastes. As for Gary, her method for preparing candied sweet potatoes begins with several peeled, similarly sized, raw sweet potatoes (about 4-5 sweet potatoes, depending on the size).
While she notes that some cooks prefer to cut the vegetable in chunks, this chef prefers to slice her potatoes in rounds. However you cut the potatoes, it’s important to maintain the same size, meaning everything needs to be uniform in the slice so that you have consistency in the way the potatoes cook,” she details.
“Another reason why I need to have the same size potatoes is because I’m cutting them in rounds and I’m particular about the presentation,” details the Houston-based culinary pro. “I make sure I have the same size slices throughout my pan.” Gary opts for a casserole baking pan, noting that any long, rectangular pan will work.
Give Us Some Sugar, Butter and Spice
Candied sweet potatoes won’t happen without the sugar. “You want this dish to be sweet, right? So if you want to use a cup of sugar or half a cup of sugar, whatever you want to use, this is where you can adjust it,” says the chef. “You can come in with real maple syrup, or you can even use honey as a sweetener. The effect is that you are candying the sweet potato. You are encasing, or enrobing, the sweet potato with the sweetness.”
For Gary, brown sugar is what she’ll reach for when making candied sweet potatoes. “I prefer to use dark brown sugar [because] it has a richer, more complex flavor profile. However, if I don’t have it, I will use light brown sugar.” She continues, “Some people prefer to use light brown sugar, but I want to see the deep colors and taste the flavor dark brown sugar imparts. You can certainly make it with just regular white sugar, too.”
As for the role butter plays in the recipe, Gary also has her preference. “Normally, I only use unsalted butter [for cooking]. But because it is a sweet dish, you do want to have the counterpoint flavor of the salt in the salted butter to enhance everything,” she shares.
Now for the flavors that give this dish its soul, she says, “I have to have that hit of cinnamon. And for me, I like to have a little nutmeg in mine too,” reveals Chef Gary. “Some people also want to add vanilla extract. I don’t add that in mine, but that’s a traditional addition.”
Those Special Touches
Aside from cutting the sweet potatoes in rounds, Chef Gary remixes the recipe for candied sweet potatoes with personal “enhancements” like a topping of chopped pecans and citrus flavor. “You could add orange extract instead of vanilla extract, but I like to add orange zest and toss that in and mix it up with the sweet potatoes,” she reveals.
“When I’ve got great oranges, I like to slice the oranges into thin rounds and then arrange them as ‘scallop slices’ in between my round cut sweet potatoes,” she says. The culinary pro cautions that when adding the orange slices to your candied sweet potatoes, use clean, organic oranges because “you don’t want to have that wax on them from the orange skin.”
Candied Sweet Potatoes Assembly Secrets
Of course, the dark ochre syrup everyone looks for in candied sweet potatoes is a key component of this dish. “A lot of times people cook the sugar syrup and then pour it over the potatoes. Or people that do it in a pot the same way,” notes the chef.
“I like to assemble my recipe together dry by putting the brown sugar over the potatoes and then enhance it with chopped pecans on top. I’m really baking the sweet potatoes. There’s a crust on top that will form made by the brown sugar, the butter and the nuts. So that’s my signature.”
Once the dish has been assembled, Chef Gary loosely covers the casserole dish with aluminum foil to allow for excess steam to evaporate and places it into a pre-heated oven set at 350 °F degrees.
The Texas native says to consider that temperatures and baking time will vary depending on your oven. “Your senses have to be engaged. So when you start smelling your food, that’s when you know that it has gotten to its cook temperature and it’s ready to be paid attention to,” she says.
“I bake it for about 15-20 minutes covered, and then remove the cover, and I will turn the pan. That’s important: Turn your pan. Anytime you’re baking, you definitely want to go back in about halfway into cooking and turn your pan because that’s affecting how the heat is radiated in the cooking process,” she coaches.
Continue baking uncovered for another 10-15 minutes. Gary continues, ”You’re uncovering it so that you can get a little bit of that golden brown crisp, ‘charred,’ almost brulee top. And that syrup is now thickened up around our sweet potato, and that’s what we really want.”
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When the Magic Happens
The baking process imparts a special alchemy between the ingredients, says Gary. “Because baking is slower, the flavors infuse into the sweet potato and [more liquid] evaporates from them,” says the pro.
“For my recipe, the oranges are going to bring another layer of liquid, too. And so slow baking helps deepen that flavor. And then, of course, you can’t achieve that crunchy top on candied sweet potatoes in a pot.”
Another advantage of baking candied sweet potatoes versus cooking them over a stovetop is the syrup’s consistency. Gary shares, “The advantage of baking, for me, is that it’s a richer dish. It’s less juicy. Some people want to have sweet potatoes, chunked and served in a little bowl, and then pour or ladle the syrup on it. For me, I want to have the sweet potato as a star—with the sugar syrup created and baked into, really become a part of the candied sweet potatoes.”
Once done, the chef says you can carefully serve it piping hot if you wish. Otherwise, allow it to cool a bit to allow for the syrup to thicken further.
A Pantry Staple
The Houston-based chef notes sweet potatoes, distinct from regular potatoes, are easy to grow in a garden. “You just simply put them in the ground and they really grow from the runners, also called slips,” she says.
Because they’re so easily grown, Gary is focusing on making sweet potatoes as part of her kids’ summer cooking camp, Community Kids Cook with Chef Tarsha at ECOTONE World, her company, which advocates for urban agriculture and sustainability.
So plant those sweet potatoes now, or head to the market and pick out a few to keep in the pantry. The next time a craving for candied sweet potatoes hits, you’ll be ready to cook them to perfection.
For more information about chef Tarsha M. Gary and ECOTONE World, an urban sustainability model advocating urban agriculture, food education, organic commerce and global enrichment, visit her website or follow her on social media.
