It’s a new year and so far it’s been busy. I’ve taken on some extra work, which has been great but it’s also making me long for all the free time I had about a month ago. Why didn’t I use that time to it’s fullest? I could have been at museums and parks, or making art, or learning something new. I guess this means my New Year’s resolution must be to balance my time so that I can still do all those things and keep blogging. I love working on this blog and I’ve missed it very much. I will be jumping back in now and sharing with you one of my favorite things to make. Sweet potato fries are no secret, they’ve been blogged about before and what I have here is barely even a recipe. You see, I’ve made sweet potato fries an unhealthy amount of times, but I’ve come out of it with a few tricks I picked up along the way and I’d like to share them with you.
I’ve burned them to a crisp, I’ve had them turn into mush and I’ve noticed that there really isn’t much guidance on baking them in the recipes that are out there. They usually just give you a temperature and a time and tell you to just pop ‘em in. I’ve never been very successful doing this, so here are some tips I have for making evenly baked, crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside sweet potato fries.
1. Turn often while baking (seriously, I know it’s not very fun but you must turn).
2. Uniformity. If they’re all about the same size they’ll crisp evenly.
3. Don’t go overboard on olive oil (about 1 tablespoon per potato).
4. Pre-heat your baking pan.
These four little things have really helped me to get sweet potato fries just the way I like them (without deep frying them that is, we all know everything is better deep fried). I hope you take these tips and experiment with whatever variation suits your fancy. I added a little cayenne pepper to mine this time, but they’re also great with garlic, thyme, cinnamon, cumin, anything you can think of (except maybe all of those things together at the same time). I hope you have fun with these, let me know how it goes.
Sweet Potato Fries
Makes 4 servings
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch wide slices, then again into 1/4 inch wide strips
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large pinches sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or any seasoning you want)
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place baking sheet in the oven while it’s preheating. Toss sweet potatoes in a bowl with olive oil, salt and cayenne. Spread sweet potatoes in a single layer on hot baking sheet. Place sweet potatoes in the oven for 15 minutes then remove pan and turn each one with a fork or tongs. Place pan back in the oven and continue turning them every 10 minutes for another 30 minutes (you will have turned the sweet potatoes four times total, making each side nice and brown). Let sweet potatoes cool for a couple minutes and serve (or eat them all to yourself because they’re so good).
Sounds yummy! I have a bunch of sweet potatoes in the pantry just waiting to have SOMETHING done to them. Now I know what to do!
Thanks for the tips…will definitely give them a try! A couple of things I have found really helpful in my pursuit of the perfect oven baked sweet potato fry, is to first cover the sweet potato slices with boiling water for 10 minutes, then bake in convection for the first 7 minutes before switching to normal baking mode until done.
you are pretty much the cutest thing ever!! Happy New Year awesome blog girl – I love you and your blog. (I hope other readers know I have know you most of your life and am not a weird blog stalker!!) =) Happy new year em
The not going overboard on olive oil always seems to be my downfall with these. I usually skip the cayenne and hit them with cinnamon about 10 minutes before they are done for a sweeter version. I don’t know why I don’t just add at the beginning; I think I’m worried about the extra spice sitting on the baking sheet and burning, then sticking to the fries when I turn them – have you ever had a problem with this?