Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Enjoy Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes as a hearty fall and winter side dish. Roast whole sweet potatoes in the oven, scoop them out and combine with cream cheese and warming spices. Bake them a second time and finish with a tasty topping of crispy bacon and sweet spiced pecans.

Move over pumpkin, there’s a new orange vegetable in town! Sweet potatoes are a nutritious and delicious dinner companion with a multitude of main dish recipes. We particularly love them as mashed Sweet Potatoes topped with chai spiced pecans for the holidays. Their pleasing honey-like flavour goes so well with salty Smoked Ham.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

If you love the sweet, smooth texture of a traditional sweet potato casserole alongside your holiday ham, you will love this sweet potatoes recipe. In fact, this dish is so hearty and delicious that we sometimes just have it for dinner with a small side salad.

That said, Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes make a perfect gluten free side dish selection for all roasted and smoked meats. We love them alongside our Thanksgiving turkey, with slow roasted boneless leg of lamb and even with smoked beef ribs. That’s not all, leave off the bacon and they make an excellent vegetarian starter or main dish.

Your kitchen is busy during the holidays, but these sweet potatoes are a side dish worth making. Simply bake and assemble them ahead of time, then reheat in the oven or in an air fryer. 

What is a Twice Baked Potato?

Are you are a fan of twice baked potatoes? You will absolutely love this mouth-watering twice baked sweet potato recipe! If you are unfamiliar with this delectable side dish, it’s pretty self explanatory but here’s the skinny…

Twice baked potatoes are whole baked potatoes (sweet or otherwise) with their insides removed and mixed with extra additives. Russet potatoes are the most popular choice because they are low in moisture and high in starch.

However, sweet potatoes are a healthy and more flavourful option. Since they already have a unique sweet flavour, the filling requires less butter and cream than the filling made with other potato varieties. In fact, the sugar content of sweet potatoes actually increases during baking.

Sweet potatoes are also known to be high in fiber and have a low glycemic index. This results in a less immediate impact on blood glucose levels, when compared to other potato varieties. Of course, moderation and balance are always key when consuming potatoes of any variety.

Note: If you are watching your sugar intake, this recipe is a great alternative to sweet potato casserole topped with mini marshmallows. Additionally, feel free to omit the brown sugar in the filling mixture and topping. Top the potatoes with plain roasted pecans instead of sugared pecans.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes Ingredients

For this recipe, you will need some creamy ingredients for the filling mixture in addition to the tasty toppings. I chose crispy bacon, sugared pecans, a dusting of brown sugar for the additional toppings.

• Sweet Potatoes
• Olive Oil
• Brown Sugar
• Butter
• Cream Cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Ground Nutmeg
• Ground Cinnamon
• Ground Cloves
• Maple Syrup
• Bacon
• Pecans

Choose small or medium sweet potatoes of a similar size and shape. Medium width with small pointy ends are the best for roasting (as opposed to the ones with long tapered ends). The skin should be smooth, not wrinkly or loose. The flesh should be a bright orange colour.

There is both brown sugar and maple syrup in the filling mixture. Sweet potatoes are already sweet so feel free to adjust the sweetness level of this recipe to your taste. Feel free to omit one or both of these sweeteners as you like. Similarly, feel free to omit the brown sugar topping as well.

Use salted or unsalted butter and regular or reduced fat cream cheese. Be sure to taste and adjust the seasoning in the filling mixture before you stuff the potatoes.

Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves go so well with the sweetness of the sweet potato. This trio of warming fall spices help to make these Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes extra special.

Crispy bacon is the perfect topping for stuffed potatoes. However, it is easily omitted for a vegetarian option.

Though this recipe sugared or candied pecans as a topping, feel free to use plain toasted pecans or walnuts. Making candied pecans is so easy and they make a great snack as well as potato topping.

Sweet Potatoes vs Yams

There always seems to be some confusion when it comes to sweet potatoes and yams. Though they are both classified as tubers, they are not botanically related. In North America, markets and grocers sell ‘yams’ which turn out to be an orange variety of sweet potato.

True yams are grown in the tropics and come in all shapes and sizes. They have rough skins with little ‘hairs’ and they have a neutral flavour with pale, starchy flesh.

Sweet Potatoes have smooth reddish-brown skin with an overall smoother shape. They have a sweet flavour and come in three varieties (white, orange, and purple) which have different nutritional benefits according to colour.

How to Make Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Prepare the Sweet Potatoes

Preheat oven to 400 F degrees and line a cooking sheet with parchment paper or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Next, prepare the sweet potatoes by rubbing each sweet potato with olive oil. Use a fork, to prick small holes all over the potatoes. This helps the steam escape during baking.

Alternatively, if you prefer softer, more tender potato skins, poke holes in each sweet potato then wrap in aluminium foil individually before baking.

Place sweet potatoes on the baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a fork can be inserted all the way to the center of the potato with ease. Do not shut off the oven.

Next, use a sharp knife to make a cut lengthwise along the top of the sweet potatoes. Allow baked potatoes to cool to room temperature or at least until they are cool enough to handle. 

Carefully scoop out the sweet potato flesh with a spoon and place it in a medium bowl. Try to leave at least a half an inch of flesh attached so that they become a stable shell for the filling. Set the sweet potato shells aside while you make the filling.

Make the Filling

Use a fork to mash the sweet potato in the mixing bowl. Add half of the brown sugar and all of the butter, cream cheese, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and maple syrup. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Continue to mash the sweet potato until all ingredients are mixed well and filling is smooth.

Next, stuff the filling back into the potato skins. If it overflows out of the top of the potato skins, that’s ok! Finally, place the potatoes back onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in the 400 F oven for another 10 minutes or until the filling is heated throughout.

To serve, sprinkle the sweet potatoes with crumbled bacon, pecans, and remaining brown sugar. Serve warm.

Hi! I’m Bernice Hill and I’ve been the sole recipe developer, photographer, and writer at Dish ‘n’ the Kitchen for the past eleven years. It is my pleasure to share easy to follow recipes that are delicious, nutritious, and approachable for the whole family.

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