Baked sweet potatoes are great and all, but twice baked?! Yes, ma’am!
I was going to just do this recipe a la casserole but something weird has happened to me through making this show and that is that I have begun thinking of food not only as delicious sustenance, but . . . as . . . art? Not exactly.
The whole idea of food as art seems pretentious and lame to me given my natural tendency to not be very “detail oriented” which is a polite way of saying “prone to half-assing”.
So lets instead refer to it as “fancy food”. Meaning, I’ve started trying make food look fancy in the pictures. And what looks more fancy than a thing that has been cooked, its innards removed, mashed about, then stuffed back into itself and topped with nuts? NOTHING.
I give you twice-baked sweet potatoes.
- 2 medium sweet potatoes (about ½ pound each)
- 4 tablespoons sour cream
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2-4 teaspoons brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Honeyed Almonds:
- ½ cup sliced or slivered almonds
- 2 tablespoons honey
- Pinch coarse salt
- Scrub the potatoes well and stab several times with the tip of a knife. Microwave about 8 minutes or until tender (or back at 400ºF for 30 minutes).
- Slice in lengthwise halves and let cool until you can handle them.
- Set the oven to 375ºF.
- Make the honeyed almonds: Combine almonds and honey in a dry skillet over medium high heat. Stir constantly for 3-4 minutes until nuts are coated in hot honey and toasted. Spread onto a sheet of waxed or parchment paper and sprinkle with salt. Allow to cool.
- Scoop the guts out of the potato halves, leaving a ¼” shell and put the potato meat in a bowl.
- Mash it up with the sour cream, butter, sugar (to taste) and salt and pepper.
- Scoop the filling back into the shells and top with some of the almonds.
- Bake 20 minutes or until heated through
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Another good substitute would be maple-glazed pecans or walnuts. You could also add some orange zest into the mashed sweet potato mix, and that would liven it up even more.
One of the things I use now instead of pumpkin pie spice is Garam Masala, which is even better. I usually mix some in with dark brown sugar when we have baked sweet potatoes. Just a little makes it so much like PIE. Mmmmmm. pie.
Yes, orange zest would be a delicious addition!
I love the garam masala idea, too. Those warm spices and sweet potatoes, yum for sure.
Hiliah: wouldn’t be a better idea to incorporate the almonds right into the sweet potato mix along with the sour cream. them spoon it all into the shell? what are your thoughts?
Hey Ron! They wouldn’t stay crunchy if you mixed them in, but if you want, you could mix half of them into the filling and then save half for putting on top.
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Hey Hilah! Do you think Greek yogurt could be substituted for the sour cream?
Absolutely!